With summer coming to an end (officially on September 23), I figured I’d give you all a small taste of a Caribbean cruise I experienced. A last getaway before all the leaves start to turn that golden color and the fall crisp air starts rolling in.
In March of 2013, I boarded my first ever cruise ship. As a recent grad from Cal State Fullerton, family members were constantly asking what I wanted as a graduation present. While I already had the laptop and basically everything I ever need or want as a recent grad, the one thing I did want was the experience to travel.
My Aunt Annie, or as said in my language my Tita Annie, and my Uncle Rene, Tito Rene, have been going on cruises quite a bit. So as they were trying to book their next one, they added me onto their itinerary. So as my graduation present they booked me a 10-day cruise to the eastern Caribbean with them. While it’s been well over a year since I went on that cruise, I did take a lot of photos and videos that I still haven’t shared to the world yet.
So I have decided to relive this wonderful getaway and share the experience with you in my Eastern Caribbean Diary series. In the next few weeks I will share photos, videos and tell you all about my good and bad experiences while on my vacation. It’ll be a getaway for everyone to see.
Nostalgia. That’s a big thing in the digital world right now.
Throwbacks of Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time outfit #FreeBritney and seeing N*SYNC and Backstreet Boys collab together just give you all the feels.
And so when I came across this little ABC’s of Travel questionnaire, it brought me back to my Xanga and LiveJournal days and I figured, why not?
Why not have a little fun on my blog and bring back all the nostalgic feels as I make my way back into the digital media world? Why not have an enjoyable post that will bring me back to my traveling days and get me on the up and up on this blogging thing.
If you didn’t know, the islands I went to from these posts were all because I went on a cruise that took me to these wonderful islands. And that cruise was for 10 days, and only 4 of them were spent at the islands.
So, what about the other 6 days?
Well, I got to experience the fun times of the Norwegian Gem. And boy did they not disappoint. They had so much to do to keep your vacation both fun and relaxing.
Welcome back to day 3 of my book launch. Also happy Labor day! As for the title, I’m not talking about my book, The Princess Center (Out September 14), it’s going to be about Samaná, Dominican Republic!
YAY! I figured, I’d give a little break from my book launch, I mean it is labor day, we all deserve a break. Which is why I wanted to continue on with my Eastern Caribbean Cruise, I want to introduce our last island, which was Samaná, Dominican Republic.
I feel like no vacation to the Caribbean is complete without a snorkeling trip. And we decided just that for our trip to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. My aunt and I booked one of the excursions for snorkeling on the cruise ship.
Welcome to my Destinations Page! Click on each photo with the destination and it will take you to all my post with that destination! Enjoy my travelers!
To continue on with my Eastern Caribbean Cruise Getaway, our next stop is going to make you wish you were in that warm beach now.
My next island adventure was at St. Maarten, Philipsburg. (And if you don’t remember, my last island adventure was at Puerto Rico).
St. Maarten is a beautiful beach city. But it also has some fickle weather where it can rain one minute and have the sun shining high the next. But we were lucky to catch mostly the sun.
Here you can see the clouds slightly forming into rain clouds.
From our port we had to take a little boat to get to the main city. Once at the city it was shops, restaurants, and the most beautiful sandy white beach I had ever seen in my life at that point.
We decided to walk around the city before going out by the beach. We found a little church and went inside. It was small, but dainty and had so much character to it.
We went into shops and I ended up buying some souvenirs for my family here. One of them was a cute little green dress for my goddaughter.
Around noon we decided to try some local food. And what’s more local than some jerk chicken and what the drink the Caribbean is known for: Rum.
We saw this cute outside restaurant that had a grill going in both the front and the back and a bartender all right next to the beach. Safe to say, it was absolutely delicious and I ate that chicken right up. Oh how I wish I can go back and eat that chicken once again.
After a few rounds of blended rum, it was time to hit the beach. This day we were actually able to relax by the beach and enjoy the sun and water. And of course that is exactly what I did. We rented out two chairs and an umbrella and I set out for the water.
Remember my Eastern Caribbean Diary series video? If you don’t, check it out here!
Well it’s time to start up that Getaway. Quite a few of you may be experiencing some extreme weather that has rain, snow and gloomy days, especially for those in the East Coast with your snow blizzard. I decided to bring some island fun to brighten those days!
Welcome to the first stop on my Eastern Caribbean Getaway!
Island #1: Puerto Rico.
The first island we hit was San Juan, Puerto Rico and it is a beautiful island. And it is even more gorgeous when it’s the first piece of land you see after being on a cruise ship for 3 days straight.
The island we were docking to was San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. We had no real agenda for this day (or any of the island days really). So with such little time in the town we opted to just explore the city near the port station, which is known as Old San Juan.
As soon as we got off the ship we were smacked with humidity, hot sticky humidity. My undone hair got frizzy within a second. But that didn’t stop me from seeing the beauty that San Juan had to offer.
Old San Juan had such beautiful Spanish architecture as well as narrow cobblestone streets and then it is also surrounded by massive defensive stone walls and forts. It is a sight to behold.
Many of the fort buildings were turned into government buildings as tourism started to boom. Like the building called the La Princessa used to be a municipal jail, but it has now become Puerto Rico Tourism Company building.
And along the walkway of where the La Princessa stands, their Spanish markets are lined up for snacks of wonderful Puerto Rican delicacies.
Lastly, we went full tourist by visiting the restaurant Señor Frog. But with such little time in Puerto Rico, it just meant for me visit it at another time with more time to actually explore and enjoy the town and go to an actual beach.
My vacation started on a Tuesday. I had a fairly early morning flight and so my dad was going to take me to the airport before he went to work. My flight was on Continental Airlines, which is now United Airlines and I was flying out of the little airport called Ontario International Airport (ONT).
Spoiler alert: This was the worst flight day I had ever had in my life. Now I’m sure you know what is going to happen now.
My dad was the one who took me to the airport, it was early in the morning and we didn’t really hit any traffic on our way to ONT, which can be a miracle sometimes for So Cal traffic. And considering how much closer this airport was to us, versus Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) or San Diego International Airport (SAN), we thought with how early it was in the morning and the proximity, we can leave a little later and I’d be checked-in, security checked, and on the plane within an hour. Boy, were we wrong.
Now I’ve never been late to the airport in my life and I’ve flown from San Diego to New Jersey quite a bit, so I’m always on time. Plus, I’m a freak with being late to things so I usually end up being super early and have to wait. But I’d rather be late than sorry.
And this day, I was very sorry.
Reminder: Never underestimate wait times. Always overestimate!
I mean it too. It didn’t look too busy on the outside, or even the inside. But the line for security was a mile long and got even longer as I waited. I’ve always gone from SAN and once through LAX and their checkpoints was not as bad as ONT. Seriously, worst security checkpoint of my life and sadly, I know it’s not my last. And here I’ve devised a list of my reasons why:
1. Disorganized 2. Disorganized 3. Disorganized
How you get to the checkpoint is by taking this small escalator up and there you get your id checked and your ticket checked so you can get in line to go through the detectors. They have a small portion of the line where you go through the little maze queue and that’s really the best way to keep people in line, well that maze queue can only have so many people in it before the line ventures off into disorganization.
And hey, you guessed it, the line ventured away from the maze queue into a mile long line of people who ended up having to curve the line because you reached the other end of the airport check-in. It looked like a black Friday line at midnight. It was ridiculous. Everyone was truly so impatient, not to mention no one had any idea that the mile-long line they saw was just the security checkpoint. So there was random cutting and early morning people irritated because the line didn’t move for one whole hour.
Now I usually allocate myself about an hour to get through the security checkpoint, and that’s with being in-line and getting through A-Okay. Well that hour turned out to be just standing in the same spot as I had been an hour ago. The security line never moved.
So there I was nervous as all hell about missing my flight, one of my worst fears is missing a flight, and my departure time was getting closer and closer. I felt like I get anxiety whenever I feel late. And I had pure anxiety and was calling all my family members to tell them I might miss my flight and I didn’t know what to do.
Finally, the checkpoint line moved and I got through, slowly, of course. And I ran. Of course my gate was literally at the very end of the terminal. So I’m hauling ass, my plane was going to leave in 10 minutes and I was trying everything I could to make it.
I wasn’t the only one running too; apparently almost everyone was late to their gate. I got to my gate and the doors were closed and of course the front desk already had a line of people trying to get the next flight out.
I will give props to the workers; they were very kind and courteous and did their best to get me to my next flight. So they told me there may be a spot in a flight that was going to leave in 15 minutes, so I needed to hurry over there and see if they could squeeze in one person. I got there and of course, there was another line. I got put on standby. They told me if one person doesn’t show up they’ll let me on the plane.
I was literally the next standby person in line and bam that darn guy came right at the last minute and I was SOL. They tried once again to get me on another flight and I was put on standby. And once again, I was denied. That was two denials within a half an hour. I was frustrated.
Finally, they told me in two hours there was a semi-full flight that they can guarantee me to get on and thank god for that. Finally, after worrying my family to the point of anxiety attacks, I was finally in the air on my way to Jersey so I can get on my cruise.
I had a layover in Chicago and my connecting was supposed to be right away. Well, lucky me, it got delayed two hours. So I was stuck. I ended up falling asleep in my seat. So my usual 6 hour direct flight to Jersey turned into an all-day event. All the while my luggage was still on the other plane making its way to Jersey before me.
FINALLY, my plane took off and I landed at the Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and there was my jersey family glad to see me as I was to see them. I was absolutely exhausted from my day of missed flights, denied standbys and delayed connections. Thank god my luggage was okay as it traveled without me for most of the day. And finally I could relax and actually start to enjoy my vacation.
Goodbye New York, time to relax on my cruise.
So moral of the story, ALWAYS allocate enough time (+an hour), to get into your flight.
After that day of headaches I vow to never miss a flight again, especially with my European trip just around the corner. I will be at the airport two hours before I have to, I don’t care. But I would rather be way early, than be so late everything gets pushed back. I was lucky I still made it that day, because if I didn’t make it to EWR by that day, I would’ve missed my cruise altogether because my ship would be sailing the very next morning. And yes, they will leave you, I’ve seen it happen.
Do you have any transportation horror stories? Share below!
