Ten days in an Aqua class stateroom, 1140. Our itinerary is:
Monday March 21, 2022: Depart Fort Lauderdale at 4:00PM
Tuesday March 22, 2022: At Sea
Wednesday March 23, 2022: Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic 7:00AM-4:00PM
Thursday March 24, 2022: San Juan, Puerto Rico 9:30AM-6:30PM
Friday March 25, 2022: St. Croix, US Virgin Islands 8:00AM-5:00PM
Saturday March 26, 2022: Antigua 8:00AM-5:00PM
Sunday March 27, 2022: St. Kitts 8:00AM-5:00PM
Monday March 28, 2022: St. Maarten 7:00AM-4:00PM
Tuesday March 29, 2022: At Sea
Wednesday March 30, 2022: At Sea
Thursday March 31, 2022: disembark Ft. Lauderdale about 8:30AM
Due to the pandemic, all cruise lines require passengers to get a COVID test 2 days before embarking. Dave and I kept discussing what to do….Walgreens, CVS and Sarasota County offer free testing and there are at home proctored tests you can buy. Nine days before our cruise, we ordered two home proctored tests for $69. They were suppose to be delivered in two days, but due to a snowstorm, they were delayed. So we started looking for other options. We didn’t want to drive to Sarasota if we didn’t have to. We could never get into CVS that was close – we’d have to go to Fort Myers, which is a bit of a drive. We couldn’t get into a Walgreens in Englewood as all the appointments were taken. But we could get appointments at a Walgreens in Port Charlotte. So we made our two appointments for Saturday morning, which was two days before our trip. This Walgreens does the rapid test and you get an email with your results in 2 hours. Before Saturday, our purchased home proctored test arrived, but since they have an expiration date in January, 2023, we decided to save those for one of our later trips and just utilize our appointments at Walgreens. Our appointments were at 10:30am, so we were expecting our email with the results by 12:30 or so. At 4:00, we had not received our results, so I called the Walgreens, and spoke to a recording for 5 minutes that was obviously no help. Finally I got transferred to the Pharmacy, and was told all the Walgreens were having trouble sending out their results, but they could print them out and I could pick up a hard copy. This Walgreens was about a 25 minute drive away, but I really wanted the results before I started to pack. So I hopped in the car and drove there to pick up the hard copy of our COVID test results. We are both negative for COVID. I asked if they would still be emailing the results and was told they would. It is now Monday, we are sitting on the ship, and we never received our emails from Walgreens. Fortunately the ship accepts hard copies so we were good.
Monday, March 21, 2022: Driving to the Port in Fort Lauderdale was uneventful. We dropped off our luggage, parked the car, and were on the ship in about 15 minutes. We had lunch in the buffet, and watched a submarine out in the waters close to where we were docked.
Then we enjoyed our Aqua Class balcony, #1140, on the back of the Celebrity Millennium ship. Funny, but we can see the Island Princess from our balcony, which is the ship we’ll be on for 34 days, at the end of May.
Aqua class is designed for people that utilize the spa, which we don’t. But it also has a separate dining room, Blu, with anytime dining, which we like. The entrees are a little different, more healthy, than the main dining room, but we’ve been able to order off the main dining room menu, too. We spent some time becoming familiar with the ship. Before dinner we upgraded my beverage package….just a pain that the classic beverage package doesn’t include San Pelligrino water and wine only up to $9 a glass, which is the headache producing stuff. Then we went to listen to some music in the Rendezvous Lounge with “Higher Love”, a band with 5 members – 2 guys and 3 gals. We had dinner in Blu: Dave had Thai Spring rolls, Filet Mignon and Apple Pie ala mode. I had blue cheese soufflé, Filet Mignon, and Chocolate truffle with cherry. After dinner we went to the theater to watch a magic show with Gabriel. I thought he was pretty good, but Dave does not enjoy magic shows very much. He just went because I wanted to see the show. After the show we stopped for nightcaps at the martini bar. Our first night onboard we get to do one of our favorite thing….silent disco!
Tuesday, March 22, 2022: Happy Birthday Wayne! Breakfast in Blu, and then a presentation on our 6 ports of call. We went to the Captains Club event after lunch and met the captain and his staff. I like this captain. He is very personable, tells jokes on his daily update, and shows up at various events on the ship. He is very visible. It’s a day at sea, so pretty laid back. We went to two trivia events where we did poorly, as usual. Dave did better on the music trivia than the two of us did on general knowledge trivia. We visit various groups playing music around the ship. We ate at Blu – another delicious dinner. I had rack of lamb and Dave had beef toranados from the main dining room menu. After dinner we cruised through Effy and we’re surprised to find they had my emerald ring, and the tanzanite ring that Dave did not buy. Then we went to the production show, Boogie Woogie. Before the show, the captain and staff were introduced and apparently the captain said he will be appearing in two comedy shows, so we’ll look forward to that. Boogie Woogie was very good as are most production shows. Lots of singing and dancing to familiar tunes, with a little bit of a story line. After the show we went to the martini bar, as did everyone else! A duo was playing, “Super Nova Duo”. So far, our favorite musical entertainers are the duo and Higher Love (4 musicians and a vocalist).
Wednesday, March 23, 2022: Today we are in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. We were here recently and did a ships tour, but today we are going to head out on our own. We had breakfast in Blu, and my plan was to follow an offline google map, with a little walking tour, but the main event was to visit the Amber museum. For some reason, I could not access my map, but figured we could get one when we got off the ship. Wrong! We had a very poor map with no street names, but at least we could figure out the general direction. Lots of police around to help us tourists cross the very busy streets. We walked to the Malecon, which is a Main Street along the water. We passed the firehouse, which was mentioned in the walking tour.
None of the signs were directing us to the Amber museum. So we made a stab at it, and walked several blocks, not finding the museum. We asked an older gentleman who spoke Spanish and told us how to get there in Spanish, but at least pointed us in the general direction. We walked several blocks and asked a lady, who basically told us to follow her, which we did. She walked to the next corner and pointed to the right, and we could see a big building, which we figured was the Amber Museum. We found it! The entry fee was $2 USD per person and we got a guided tour! The original owner was wealthy and his wife collected Amber, which was the beginning of the Amber museum. All the pieces on display are from her collection. One on the things on the property was a perfectly restored Model A Ford. Then we saw a demonstration on making cigars. After he made the cigar, he offered it to us. We were a small group of 4, which was Dave and me and 2 ladies from Canada. None of us smoke and none of us knew anyone that smoked cigars, so we all declined his offer of the freshly made cigar. Then we walked through the museum and our guide told us everything about Amber, including how it is mined today. It is a very dirty, dangerous job, and the miners are paid based on their finds. The signature piece is a tiny lizard fully encapsulated in resin.
It is amazing to see mosquitos, cockroaches, flowers, and various other things fully encapsulated that are 5 million years old but recognizable today.
Raw Amber would be unrecognizable to me.
After our guide walked us through the museum, she showed us a replica of an Amber mine, which she described as very rural. Then she showed us the process of making tobacco for the cigars, which takes more than a year. We saw the tiny seeds, plants in various stages, full grown plants and finally the leaves which are also put through a several month process before they’re ready to become a cigar. The end of our tour was a gift shop where you could buy Amber, cigars and various other souvenirs. We walked back towards to ship (which we could see in the distance), pausing in Independence Plaza, and checking out a couple of souvenir shops on the way back. We had seen some of the sights on our last visit to Puerto Plata, like Umbrella Street. There are shops and restaurants on each side of this street – the umbrellas obviously attract tourists!
Back on the ship and hot, we headed for the sunset bar, which happens to be directly below our stateroom, and had a couple of margaritas and some lunch. We had dinner in Blu and went to the show in the theater. The entertainment was a piano player, but he did more than play the piano. John Bressler was very entertaining with his comedy, music and singing with his raspy voice. Our routine is to stop by the martini bar before heading to bed.
Thursday, March 24, 2022: We have a Celebrity shore excursion today. It is a walking tour of Old San Juan. In reality, it was a walk to the fort, San Felipe del Morro Castle. The guide was very knowledgeable, but mostly in world military and political history. He was also a big (literally!) sports fan and would throw in sports talk along the way. So, we did not think the guide was the best. And, we got rained on. Our guide pointed out this building with a mourning flag painted on the door. It represents the difficult times our world has been through such as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
The walk to the fort, and the entry to the fort.
Per our guide, one of the prettiest streets in San Juan, due to the colorfully painted houses.
Another couple, Bruce and Jean, in our group asked about “Can Can Pork Chops”. At the end of our 4 mile walk, the guide directed us to a restaurant and we joined Bruce and Jean. Can Can Pork Chops is a Puerto Rican dish. It is a huge piece of pork, about 12 inches long, but it has a lot of fat. Dave and I shared one with a local beer, and some Mofongo, which is another local dish. The best part of our tour was our enjoyable lunch with Bruce and Jean. Sorry I forgot to take the picture until we were almost done, but gives you an idea of how big the Can Can pork chop was. The roundish item was mofongo, and our waiter brought us the little container of orange sauce saying something about garlic.
Later, at dinner in Blu, we happened to sit next to another couple who had been on our walking tour. They had the same sentiments as us with regards to the guide. After dinner we went to the show and saw John Joseph, a comedian. We really enjoyed his show. He did “pick on” several people in the audience, and at the end of his act, he picked up his guitar and sang a little song about all the people he picked on. After the show, we stopped by the martini bar before heading to our stateroom.
Friday, March 25, 2022: We were up early and got room service breakfast because we have a Celebrity walking tour that stars at 8:30am. We are in Fredericksburg, St. Croix, USVI. Our guide is Robin, and she may not be as “brilliant” as our guide yesterday, but we enjoyed her tour much, much more than yesterday. Apparently her family has deep roots in St. Croix, but she was born in Brooklyn, NY and lived in California for 20+ years. She has been back and forth to St. Croix, but has lived here for the last 9 years. Walking down the long pier to exit the port area was a manned desk with local maps! We loved getting a map because we could not find a map in Puerto Plata even though we asked several times. We saw our first Moko Jumbie, which is a stilt Walker or dancer. Their stilts were about 10 feet tall!
After passing out of the port area, Robin pointed out a clock tower. The insides were made in the USA, and apparently were not made to withstand the salt sit. The clock works, but it never has the correct time.
Robin then took us to the fort and explained the cistern, barracks, etc. There are several rooms and she gave us time on our own to explore. One room was dedicated to the Moko Jumbies, the men on very tall stilts.
There was a room devoted to the Taino Indians, who were the native people. There is a lot of Danish influence as the Danes were in St. Croix for many years. As we walked the streets, she pointed out several places of interest and spoke about the people who lived there and their influence on the island. There is an oil well, but it was deserted several years ago, and then restarted about a year ago. However, the equipment was old and not very up to the current technology, which resulted in a lot of pollution in Fredericksburg (The town where we are docked). The people in Fredericksburg complained so much, that the oil production shut down, and is currently not in operation. We stopped by a cultural building which currently has an art show with art from the local students. The lady in charge was very knowledgeable and told us about some of the youthful artists and their mentors. Upstairs, which we did not visit, was a woodworking shop where youth were being taught about woodworking. There are lots of chickens roaming around and one chicken wandered in the cultural building while we were there.
We walked uphill to one of the town cemeteries, passing the 4 main churches in town: Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and I had not heard of the fourth one. These churches have been in St. Croix for many years, but recently they also have a synagogue and a mosque. She mentions there are Palestinians that have relocated here. One building that now houses the Governor, was originally the Danish school. I believe this school would have been active in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Even more interesting was the Danish school was in English! She pointed out several big, old trees such as a banyan tree and another tree that had an unusual fruit.
She pointed out a tree with termite trails – I hadn’t seen that before! Look close for black lines.
We walked up a hill in town to the cemetery where many of our guides ancestors are buried. She also pointed out her house which you could see, high up on a hill. She said the bottom level was a cistern, the first floor is an ArBNB and she and her husband live on the top floor. In the cemetery she pointed out graves that were covered in conch shells, without any other marker. Most of the graves were plots with a short cement wall and a plaque or headstone. She did not know how old the cemetery was. After visiting that cemetery, we walked past the Anglican Church and Anglican cemetery. She pointed out the stone bell tower on the Anglican Church which will withstand most storms.
The Anglican Cemetery had a sign with the date 1819. We saw several old structures that were being renovated, but there were several old structures that were in ruins. We walked back to King Street, which is the main drag and where carnival passes every December. Here our tour ended in a museum, which was more like an artists studio. Our guide had mentioned a vendor selling fruity beer that we would pass on our way back to the ship. So, of course we had to try the beer. A young lady was selling beer along the sidewalk – one beer was a heavier beer with lots of hops and the other beer was a lighter beer. I took the heavier one and Dave took the lighter one. The heavier beer had a very good flavor with a fruity taste. The lighter beer has less flavor, but Dave thought it was colder. We took the opportunity to sit on a bench in the shade and listen to a band in the grandstand playing island music, which included some Jimmy Buffett tunes. We wandered around the vendors and then walked back to the ship. We felt we enjoyed our tour today much more than San Juan.
Back on the ship, we relaxed on our balcony and went to Blu for dinner. However we ordered off the main dining room menu. After dinner we went to a show in the theater. It was a singer, Lainie, and guitarist, Matt, and their show was “Legends of Guitar – A Tribute to the Greatest Guitarists of all Time”. We stayed for about 30 minutes, but just never got into the show. So we left and went to….the martini bar!
Saturday, March 26, 2022: we have a walking tour in St. John’s, Antigua today, “Legends and Lore of Antigua”. We met our guide on the port and she issued each of us a “Whisper System” set, which allows you to hear what the guide is saying, even if you are several feet away. Unfortunately, the guides speech was not clear so it was very hard to understand anything the guide was saying. The guide was wearing her headset around her neck instead of on her head, so we think the microphone was not positioned properly to hear her. Basically, I could not hear or understand anything she said, and Dave didn’t hear much better. The first place she took us was the market, which is an outside market, set up with dozens of vendors, selling various fruits and vegetables.
Then we walked through the fish market. One lady was scaling fish.
We walked some more and she pointed out various types of architecture, including the Methodist church. It was built of stone, but in a recent renovation it looked like they covered the stones with plaster and then painted it to look like bricks. We stopped for a bit and she showed us pictures of the local currency and local fruits.
Then we walked to the Anglican Church which is very large. She said it would hold 2,000 people. But, it needed some serious repairs which were supposedly taking place. We wandered in the graveyard attached to the church and saw graves from the early 1700’s. While there, we saw one man sleeping on a stone slab covering a grave. She offered us a drink of fruit punch or rum punch while we were in the cemetery, too.
Our next stop was a museum. It told some history of Antigua, sugar processing, and a statue of a popular sports figure. I enjoyed walking around the museum as the artifacts were well labeled. This display was about the first settlers to the island.
We left the museum and walked through the post office, where she pointed out Mail boxes that you could rent for $100 a year in order to get mail.
Finally, we walked thru a shopping area that was clean and obviously set up for tourists.
I was not happy with the tour, as I was expecting “Legends and Lore”, and I don’t think that is what the tour was about. I was only able to understand a very small amount of what she was talking about.
After our tour, we walked back to the ship. There are 3 cruise ships in Port with us today, MSC Seaview, Enchanted Princess, and our ship, the Celebrity Millennium. There is also a British Navy Patrol boat.
We were invited to the sail away on the helipad, on the front of the ship. Instead of the wine that they usually give you, they gave us Margaritas. Always a fun event – lots of people, but several officers and crew, too. I think it is a fairly shallow port as it seemed the ship stirred up a lot of sand as we left.
We went to hear some music in the Rendezvous Lounge before dinner, and then had dinner in Blu. We crashed early as the show in the theater didn’t sound that appealing.
Sunday, March 27, 2022: We’re in St. Kitt and do not have a ships excursion today as we have been to St. Kitts before and it is a small island. I do like this island though. I found a self guided walking tour online and we are going to follow that. We had a leisurely breakfast and wandered off the ship about 10:00. Despite all the weather apps saying no rain, we ran into several showers and spent a lot of time ducking under awnings or stepping into covered doorways.
Our first sight was The Old Treasury Building which is covered in scaffolding due to renovation. The Old Treasury Building also served as the Customs House. The write up said this domed building and it’s arches are a good reminder of just how rich sugar made the island. Unfortunately, due to the repairs, we did not take a picture. Our next stop was the Circus, which is a circular, open space with a small roundabout. In the center is a large green cast iron Berkeley Memorial Clock. It is a memorial to Thomas Berkeley, a former president of the Legislative Assembly. But the clock does not display the correct time.
The next stop was Independence Square. Originally known as Pall Mall Square, it was built in 1790 for slave auctions and council meetings. It was renamed in 1983 to commemorate the independence of the island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis from Great Britain. Nothing remains of its bleak origins. Instead, a large fountain decorates the center and the perimeters are bordered by old stone buildings and neat, aged, wooden structures painted in white and colorful pastels, all excellent examples of British Colonial architecture.
Bordering Independence Square is the Court House, Library and Church of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. We did peak inside the church as even though it is Sunday, the service is at 8:30am, and it is about 10:30, so no parishioners are visible.
After leaving the Catholic Church, we walked to another church, St. George’s Anglican Church. It is a large brownstone church located on an interesting and fiery religious battle site. According to the information I downloaded, it’s been destroyed so many times it’s difficult to tell whose side God ended up on, the French or the British. Originally, the French built the church “Notre Dame” here in 1670, which the British burned down in 1706. The British rebuilt 4 years later, naming their new Anglican structure after the patron Saint of England. However, a fire in 1763, an earthquake in 1843, a hurricane, then another fire in 1867 resulted in St. George’s being destroyed and rebuilt three more times. The current structure is the result of the last restoration in 1869. One other claim, that is a bit odd to me, is that the French Governor, Philippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, from 1639 until his death in 1660 is buried on the grounds. My confusion is he died in 1660 and the church was not built until 1670, 10 years later. There are several burial plots on the very expansive grounds. Most dates on the tombstones were unreadable, but we did see some from the early 1700’s. The photo is from the outside of the church, which appeared closed, so we could not enter. From the outside, the church looked to be in very good condition.
Leaving this area, we passed the Methodist church, which seemed much smaller. We didn’t see a front door, although there was some music coming from inside. So we could not enter.
This was the end of the walking tour I had printed out, so we headed back to the ship. Along the way, we passed the Government Headquarters and the public market – neither of which had any activity since it is Sunday. We notice most of the restaurants we passed were also closed on Sunday. Back on the ship, we headed to the sunset bar for some drinks – water and soda – and lunch. We will do some relaxing this afternoon, until the music starts up at sail away. Our captain has been pulling into port instead of backing in. Dave and I wish he would back in because we have a stateroom on the back of the ship, and if he backed in, we could see the town and watch sail away from our balcony. However, everyday they have been inviting people to the sail away on the helipad at the front of the ship. So if he backed it, the people on the helipad would not have as nice a view of the sail away. So, we go to the lounge on the front of the ship to watch sail away. Today, there is no bartender, so we left pretty quickly and went to one of the lounges to get a pre dinner drink and listen to music. We went to dinner a few minutes early because there was a vodka tasting event that I wanted to attend. Unfortunately, it was only one vodka, Belvedere Lemon I think. I tasted it and we moved on. We stopped in at Effy, the jewelry store, trying to negotiate a better price for a ring I want. We went to the show, and it was a soloist. He sang songs we didn’t know or didn’t like, so we left early and went to the martini bar to discuss purchasing the ring. We decided to go try on the ring, and ended up buying it.
Monday, March 28, 2022: We are docked in Philipsburg, St. Maarten. There are 3 other boats in port with us – Aida Perla, Norwegian Epic, and a Seadream. We did an extensive tour the last time we were here, and I had printed out a little walking tour. Fortunately, we were able to pick up a nice map at the tourist information booth. Town is about a 15 minute walk, but you can take a land taxi or a water taxi. We elected to walk. There is a 30’ wide boardwalk along the water, and just a block in from the water is front street. We passed the Guavaberry store which was on my printout, but it was closed. The Guavaberry store sold a flavored rum, and a sign on the door said to visit their store at the port. We will try to remember to do that. In the Guavaberry courtyard is a crossroads sign showing the distance to various places. We found it interesting that they show the distance to Evanston, Illinois instead of Chicago.
In 1888, Roman Catholic Priest Father Nieuwenhaus passes away and donated two houses, a plot of land and $10,000 to the Dominican Nuns in the Netherlands, to open a school in St. Maarten. On June 2, 1890, the doors of the St. Joseph building were opened to children to attend school there. 132 children came to the new school. The school went into private hands in 1990, and in 2017 the buildings were damaged by Hurricane Irma. The current owners renovated the buildings in consideration of the historic nature of the buildings.
We passed another church and walked to the Court House. Built in 1793 as the home of Commander John Philips, the town’s founder, the building has served as a fire station, mail and post office over its long history and is one of St. Maarten’s most prominent landmarks. We were not allowed to enter – perhaps court was in session.
The courthouse is on front street, so we walked over a block to the Philipsburg Boardwalk, which runs along the water and beaches. The boardwalk is nearly 50 feet wide with all kinds of touristy places such as bars, restaurants, etc. I saw signs advertising 2 beach chairs, an umbrella and sometimes bathroom or drinks for $25. We passed a Methodist church from 1851.
We also passed a Catholic Church with a plaque honoring St. Martin of Tours who lived 371 – 397!
Many of the hotels along the beach looked pretty run down.
We had been dodging rain the whole time we were off the ship, and had a pretty good rainstorm which delayed our return to the ship. It was a short walk from the pier area to town. We looked at several of the souvenir shops in the pier area and tasted Guavaberry which is a tasty rum. Back on the ship, we headed to the sunset bar and grabbed a late lunch and chilled out for awhile. We were suppose to have an early sailaway, so we went to trivia in the sky lounge to await sail away. An hour after we were suppose to leave the captain made an announcement that they were waiting for an ambulance. Apparently a passenger needed medical care that was not available on the ship. I am hoping it was not COVID, but no clarification was given.
We have dinner reservations at a specialty restaurant, LePetite Chef. There is a set menu, and characters are projected on your table as the characters act out making each course of the meal.
When the video is done, your food is placed in front of you. It is a 4 season, 4 course meal. The Petite chef meets his girlfriend in the Spring the first course, which was a cold pea soup. The petite chef and his girlfriend get married, build a house, and have kids in the Summer, second course, which was bow tie pasta with snow crab. The third corse has the children going off to what we assume was college, and the dish was a filet mignon. The last course was winter, and the children return with their spouses and the grandchildren and we were served a chocolate brownie with a scoop of ice cream. You were allowed to video the meal but I know it’s out on YouTube, so I just took one picture of the table which was white when we sat down, but a tablescape was projected on the table which also changed with the seasons. It was very cute and I enjoyed it. It was advertised as 3-D, and Dave has been moaning that it was 2-D and not 3-D, but I think he enjoyed it when we were eating dinner.
After dinner we went to the show in the theater which was “The Four C-notes”, a Four Seasons tribute band from Chicago. We enjoyed them very much. After “The Four C-notes”, we went to The Liars Club with the Captain, the cruise director and John Joseph (a very funny comedian). They are given a word and they give their definition. The audience claps to indicate who is telling the truth (the real definition) and who is lying. It is a really funny show. Then, time to grab our nightcap from the martini bar and go to bed.
Tuesday, March 29, 2022: We are done with all our port visits and we have two sea days before ending our cruise in Fort Lauderdale. The shops are having a sale, and we peruse the shops but don’t buy anything. Then a late morning wine tasting. We really don’t have much planned today, but will do some packing. We visited a bit with the future cruise representative, and spent some time trying to research a future cruise on Celebrity, but could not decide. We will just put down a deposit, which allows us to decide later. We were given some future cruise credits due to Dave complaining about the noise from the movies on the rooftop terrace, right over our head. We have a great stateroom and balcony on the back of the ship, but the balcony becomes unusable when a movie is being shown because it is so loud. In the evening after dinner, we went to the show in the theater, iBroadway. It was a production show with many show tunes. We enjoyed it very much. After the show, the cruise director, Alejandro, had a sit down with the captain. It was funny and cute. Captain Pierre served as staff captain under Captain Kate, the first female American cruise ship captain. They had some funny questions and answers. They showed pictures of the Captain, and his family, and pictures of Alejandro who is from Argentina. Captain Pierre is from Malta, but his wife is from Slovakia, so he lives in Slovakia now.
Wednesday, March 30, 2022: our last breakfast in Blu…we went back to the stateroom and packed pretty much everything we could. We ate lunch and went to the afternoon matinee in the theater. It was a rerun of 3 of the evening entertainers. The first up was Matt and Lainie who play Legends of Guitar classics (Matt on guitar and Lainie sings and dances) and we did not like their first performance. The second was Marty Thomas, who told us his mentor was Glen Campbell. We enjoyed the Glen Campbell songs he sang, but again, did not enjoy the evening he performed in the theater. The last set was with the Four C Notes, and we really liked them at the matinee and the evening they performed in the theater. They’re a Four Seasons tribute band and just fun to watch. After dinner we went to the evening show in the theater which was an aerial acrobatic act. It was a young man and young woman from Ukraine. I think the fact they were from Ukraine made their act even more appealing. I was glad these two young people were not in Ukraine suffering from Putin’s war. They did a great job and we enjoyed their show. Of course we had to stop by the martini bar, and it was silent disco night which we love. Each person gets their own headset and it has 3 channels so you can pick the music you like, and switch back and forth if you want.
It was a fun evening and a great way to end our cruise. Our post party drinks….
Thursday, March 31, 2022: I think we had to be out of our stateroom by 8:00am, and we were ready by about 7:50. We ate breakfast in the main dining room (our only choices were main dining room or buffet) and finished just after it was our turn to disembark. We quickly found our luggage which had been off loaded during the night and walked to the facial recognition screens and to our car. The facial recognition screens are great and really speeds up going through customs – actually, there is no customs. No one asks what you brought back or what you bought anymore. Very quick and easy.