Road Trip (SC, GA, FL) to a Cruise! And why we choose to cruise!

Chef Dan and his Foodie Wife (me) have just returned from a wonderful, warming, 4 week vacation, 2 weeks of which were spent on the Celebrity Eclipse http://www.celebritycruises.com in the Caribbean, and the other 2 weeks on a road trip to and from Florida, and in the next several posts I will share links to the great adventures we had, including spear-fishing, snorkeling with turtles and manatees, tasting rums and learning to cook Antiguan food, and riding Trikes and ATVs, hopefully inspiring and encouraging you to check them out and put them on your YOLO List! One of the things I'm often asked is why we like to cruise, as a lot of people seem to think cruising is for "old" or "fuddy-duddy" people, and that we're not the "cruise type"! As this was our fourth (and so far best) cruise, I want to start this post with why we really love cruising. I booked our first cruise 4 years ago when we had a last-minute opportunity to get away in the middle of winter, and a cruise was the cheapest warm-weather holiday I could find with no notice! Forewarned by friends in the travel industry, we took a cheapie, discounted inside cabin and went off fully prepared to be disappointed... and were totally surprised to find that we loved it! We went ATVing in Cozumel, Mexico, learned to JetSki in Labadee, Haiti, rode horses in the ocean off Jamaica, played games in the ship's arcade, saw some great shows, indulged in the salon, spa, and Cigar Bar, found the food to be surprisingly excellent, enjoyed the towel animals(!), dressed in gowns and tuxes and reminded each other how good we could look, danced and romanced... and booked our next cruise almost immediately upon returning!
This is our second cruise with Celebrity http://www.celebritycruises.com and it was THE best! We enjoyed a 2-week cruise on the Eclipse, stopping at 8 southern Caribbean ports (St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Martin, Barbados, Antigua, Grenada, Aruba, and Curacao), with 5 (wonderful) relaxing days at sea to enjoy our balcony and many of the great things the ship had to offer, including breakfast on our stateroom's balcony each morning and wine at sunset, the truly excellent and inventive cuisine at Qsine, live jazz and wine on the lawn (yes, a lawn, with real grass!), the ice-covered Martini Bar and Molecular Bar, proffering a yummy assortment of inventive cocktails, the enomatic wine bar, where you can self-service taste dozens of wines from all over the world and enjoy wine and port tastings, whisky tastings in Michael's Pub with an excellent Irish bartender, absolutely Great spa treatments and acupuncture (which keeps hubs totally out of pain), and some great entertainment, including a terrific, talent-filled Le Cirque-style show with amazing Polish acrobats and dancers flying from the ceiling... and some fabulous towel animals, too! The service was great, and frankly, as all the ships are beautiful, service is what makes a cruise great! (RCCL's service, on the other hand, hit rock-bottom (racist, ugly, mean, dangerous) on our last cruise with them 2 years ago, and as a result we'll never Ever cruise with them again). Celebrity is owned by RCCL, but it is Light years ahead of what RCCL deteriorated into. I think that one of the reasons Celebrity's service is so great is that the vast majority of their cruisers Are older- and yes, some of them have walkers or canes or wheelchairs- and they need good service. We're Boomers: I'm 53 and Chef Dan is 66, and we're still "adrenaline junkies"  love "active" excursions like ATVing and spearfishing, but we Very much appreciate good service and enjoy things like whisky tastings, jazz on the lawn, fine cuisine, shows, spa treatments, and just chilling on our balcony naked with a good book and a glass of wine! :-) So our verdict is that cruising is a Great way for folks of all ages to have a fabulous holiday, and there are some GREAT deals out there! THE best deals I've been able to find anywhere (with great perks like on-board credits and pre-paid gratuities) are the "flash sales" from CruCon www.crucon.com and I subscribe to them religiously! (Hint: book a "guaranteed balcony" for the best deal! You may get what they call a "partially obstructed view", which means the lifeboats are directly beneath your balcony, but it is FINE! And trust me: once you have a balcony you will NEVER book an inside cabin again- the balcony MAKES the cruise!) Once you've booked your cruise, a fun thing to do is sign up for the "Roll Call" board for your cruise on Cruise Critic www.cruisecritic.com and "meet" your fellow shipmates; you can exchange information and gather groups for excursions, plan meet-and-greet parties, read recent reviews of the ship you'll be sailing on, check out excursion ideas on the site's boards for your ports of call, and share the happy anticipation! (I think 1/4 of the fun of a trip is in the planning, and another 1/4 is in the blogging and looking at all the photos!) Thanks to the Cruise Critic Boards, "Googling", and www.TripAdvisor.com Forums, I found unique excursions for each of our 8 ports. I booked all but one of our excursions independently of the cruise line, as in the past we were disappointed with many cruise line excursions, finding them way too crowded to be any fun. Many newbie cruisers are scared to book excursions independently for fear of being late and missing the boat, but if a company has 5-star reviews on TripAdvisor and Cruise Critic you can rest assured that they WILL see that you get back to the ship on time!

Chef Dan and I started our vacation with a 4-night "foodie road trip" from Landgraff, WV to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I broke the trip into 4-5 hour driving segments, knowing that we like to stop along the way to see and do things, and that for us it's Never the 4 or 5 hours www.mapquest.com says it is, but we Still didn't have enough time to stop and see all the things we wanted to along the way! Our first stop was Spartanburg, SC where stayed at the lovely The Inn on Main in a beautiful room with a soaking tub for two :-) The charming, helpful Inn-Keepers, Susan and Wayne, have truly created a beautiful place, and this is definitely "the" place to stay in Spartanburg! We were recommended to the inn by Elkhorn Inn guests who've become good friends, and who were the reason we decided to stop in Spartanburg! 

We had a wonderful evening of wine at the Carriage House Wine Bar , followed by a delicious dinner, with our Spartanburg friends!

Our next stop was Savannah, GA, where we stayed at the historic Marshall House (which has a great wine and cheese evening for guests!), and had a wonderful dinner at The Olde Pink House so Chef Dan could "deconstruct" (figure out how to make) their fab "Southern Sushi" that we'd had on a previous stay in Savannah! We'd heard the Marshall House was haunted, and specifically requested a room where we might experience something, but no luck! ;-)

We got to do a little target practice...

I must say that I found the AR-15 to be feather-light and really easy to control, and I liked it a lot. I have to pat myself on the back for being able to to site and compensate properly in short order after all these years! Girly-girl can still make a "nice grouping"! :-)

We had a yummy lunch of fried oysters at one of our fave places: Skipper's Fish Camp on the water in Darien, GA! We couldn't believe we actually found it again! They have a lovely deck with a great view, a turtle pond, and charming service, and we always look forward to stopping there. We got to spend a bit of time at Fort King George Museum, too; Darien is definitely a place we want to come back to and spend a couple of days! There's a hotel next to the restaurant right on the water, there's a wine dinner cruise, and Ft. King George- so much to fun to be had!

We spent the night in St. Augustine, FL, one of our favorite places, staying again at the Bayfront Marin House so we could enjoy a lovely room with a soaking tub and breakfast on the veranda overlooking the water!

We had a truly delish Spanish tapas and wine dinner at our favorite St. Augustine restaurant The Tasting Room...

and anotherfun evening of live music and drinks at Tradewinds, our totally fave, happily smokey dive bar!

In the morning, before getting on the road, we stocked up on the tropical fruit wines we love (Grapefruit, Banana, Key Lime, Mango, Orange/Chocolate, etc...) at Vino Del Grotto Winery, doing a morning wine tasting to get our daily requirement of fruits and veggies! :-) We truly look forward to this all winter long!

We again spent our pre-cruise night at the Hilton Ft. Lauderdale Marina (on our Hilton Honors Points! We are loyal for a reason!), which we ESPECIALLY love for their smoking rooms with balconies overlooking the intercoastal waterway, really nice service, and the ability to park our car there for the duration of our cruise for only $10/night!
We treated ourselves to a wonderful dinner of venison and other delectables at the "farm-to-table" gourmet restaurant Market 17 across the street. We found it last year, and spent all year hoping to return!

And then, (after I had packed on 20 pounds in 4 days...) we were off on our cruise!

Next post: Cruising the Southern Caribbean!

Road Trip: Florida! Teeth! Sushi! Cigars!

From Jekyll Island, Dan & I drove to Florida, and FINALLY got to put the top down on our little, ol' Mustang convertible! Those of you who know me, know that I haven't been able to smile my silly, toothy smile for almost 2 years, as my teeth were so pitted and stained (from decades of grinding, coupled with dastardly red wine and coffee) that they looked terrible. Dan had what I thought was a Crazy idea: that I try to find a dentist I could see the one day we'd be in Miami! I went on the internet and found Dr. Mereos of Precious Smiles and called- and found that he'd actually be able to see me on that Saturday morning! I had no clue what he'd be able to do in a day- but what he did in a hour was nothing short of amazing- he drilled & filled and literally gave me back my toothy smile- and he made it affordable for us! I was SO happy that I made a small video testimonial for him, and it's on the Precious Smiles Facebook page! We HIGHLY recommend him! My only regret is that he's not in West Virginia!

 

Elisse, showing off her apre-Precious Smiles smile, celebrating with Dan, having saki & sushi in SoBe! 





Elisse & Dan having pedicures at SPAe



Fab SoBe Miami window dressing

We immediately went to a drugstore so I could get a night guard to hopefully protect my new teeth from further grinding damage, and vowing to lay off the red wine, we celebrated with sushi & (white) saki at a Lincoln Road cafe restaurant! We spent the day walking around and window shopping the wonderful SoBe stores (and thrift shops!), having pre-cruise pedicures at SPAe, & Dan had his chocolate fix with a rather amazing chocolate-strawberry sundae at Ghirardelli! We wound up the evening with drinks & cigars at Deco Drive Cigars on Lincoln Road, and a birthday celebration dinner with friends at La Lupa di Roma!



Dan, cigar, & hookah: Deco Drive Cigars



We stayed for two nights at the historic 1906 Miami River Inn, an interesting "old Miami" property near the port. Our guest room was cute and "shabby chic", with period furnishings and antiques, and we enjoyed our stay. the location was perfect for us, and we had a great Cuban dinner nearby, too! 

Comin' Home! Florida-Georgia-Virginia-West Virginia ROAD TRIP!

We disembarked from Royal Caribbean's Freedom of Seas into a Freezing Cold Florida! Bundled back into my winter coat, I waited for Dan to get the car with my teeth chattering! Granted, Florida was NOT freezing cold by 10-degree-below-zero snowdrift WV standards, but at 40 degrees in the sun, it felt mighty crispy after a week in the tropics, and at night it got down as low as 28 degrees! Brrrrrrrrrr! (And bad for the oranges!)

The first thing we did (with our teeth chattering) was check into our wonderful (smoking) guest room at the Hilton Cocoa Beach on our Hilton Honors points (it Does pay to be loyal, trust me...) & put on sweaters! Thanks to their great concierge, we wound up at Rusty's Seafood & Oyster Bar  on Glen Cheek Drive on the waterfront (hard by all the fishing charters, which we would have done, had we had another day to spare...) for lunch, and it was SO good that we wound up there again for dinner! Their seared ahi tuna was basically luscious, tender slices of sashimi, the tender oysters wrapped in crispy, crunchy bacon were Fabulous (and it is Damned hard to get those right w/out overcooking the scallops into rubber), their butterflied coconut shrimp were crunchy, tender, and delicious, & their oysters on the half-shell were Great! We basically went through their appetizer menu for both our meals so we could sample everything! AND they had a cute outdoor bar & porch with heaters, where one could drink one's wine & smoke (just like a grown up!) and not freeze one's numbnuts off! YAY! (As you may be apparent, Chef Dan & I travel, like Napoleon's army, on our stomachs!) After dinner, we took our waitresses' advice and went to a local's bar where the staff hangs out & we could smoke & drink some more- Just Like Grown-Ups! And we'll never tell you where it is unless you take us back there again!

Because we had a wonderful Inn-&-Puppy-&-Kitty Sitter (St. Terry of the Bluefields), we were able to dawdle a bit on the way home and extend our holiday with a bit of a Road Trip... and since I'm married to Hard Drivin' Dan, who can do those cross-your-legs-&-drive marathons without batting an eye, it was Grand!

Leaving Cocoa Beach, we left the highway to peek at the lovely green bayous & watch folks fishing...

Then we drove along the coast to New Smyrnah Beach, and motored slowly down the beach itself, having Drunch (that late meal between lunch and dinner) on the beach overlooking the ocean! It is SO incredibly cool that you can still drive on the beach in New Smyrnah and stop for a bite on the sea! The drivers are SO polite! You pay a big, fat $5 to drive along the ocean, everyone obeys the rules, drives slowly and carefully, and no one litters! It is SO great!!!! 

Back on the road again, we found a rather amazing gallery of wood carving on the Florida highway...

...and then a boneyard for old aircraft that we just HAD to check out, Dan being an old Aircraft Guy...

We spent the night in St. Augustine, Florida because, unlike Dan, I'd never been there, & it looked So cool- and it was wonderful! Another place we didn't get to spend enough time in, and to which we MUST return! There are SO many great historic things to see there and so many terrific-lookingg restaurants to try & cool things to do!! We spent the night at the Monterey Inn on the Matanazas Bay waterfront (balcony outside our room pictured), because they were Nice, gave us a great rate when we pulled in late & tired, & because from there we could walk everywhere! We wandered up and down the cobblestone streets, reading the historic markers and finding some great, fun music bars to duck into. We wound up having a dinner of crab BLTs (crab & bacon being a pretty excellent combination) & doing a great "Beer Sampler" at A1A Ale Works, and then spending the evening in the few (happily smoker-friendly) clubs that had great music and SRO crowds until closing. The sad fact was that I wanted an appropriately Spanish wine-&-tapas dinner, but all the cute (non-smoking) restaurants and wine & tapas bars were empty and shuttered by 9pm. :-(  Only the smoking bars remained opened late, SRO and jumping, until closing time- so that's where we went, relaxed, enjoyed ourselves, & spent our money! CBOs, tourism folks, & Government wonks: are you getting it yet? Or are you still going to continue the hypocritical, puritanical, judgemental, & nonsensical anti-smoking stupidity to distract us form the REAL issues destroying our country, while preaching & pretending it's "great" for business, tousism, and the economy- much less anyone's "health"?

Cretinous stupidity makes us NUTS!

In the morning, while strolling the Old Town streets looking for a place to have breakfast, we first sampled the local Florida tropical Fruit Wines at  Vino Del Grotto, and got our 5 Servings of Fruit for the day in the form of Banana, Watermelon, Blueberry, Grapefruit, & Guava wines! And they were SO yummy (summer in a bottle!) that we Had to buy some to take home! They even treated us to samples of their "smoothies"! :-) Then we feasted on great, fresh-from-the-oven empanadas (meat-filled Spanish pastries), coffee, & homemade cookies at the Spanish Bakery (which has an adorable outside garden), took pix @ the Fort, and then Dan buckled down to some Serious driving!

We stopped in St Mary's, Georgia for lunch (more oysters! And I actually got to shuck 'em myself- see pix!), because it looked historic and interesting. We toured their local eco-museum as well as the Excellent US Navy Submarine Museum, and learned that there's a ferry from St. Mary's to Cumberland Island where they have wild horses, but the ferry only goes 2X/day and we didn't have time to stay, so we HAVE to go back! I have GOT to go to the island to see the horses! On the way back to the highway we found- be still my beating heart!- a Goodwill, and HAD to kill another hour, getting Dan a perfectly-fitting Pierrre Cardin tux & me a classic black & white satin ball gown! For $9! And No, I'm not kidding! Mr. & Mrs. Thrift Shop have a "thing" for Goodwill & the Sallies, especially when we find them in what we perceive to be "high rent" districts! Boo-Boo also got herself a fab pair of pale blue suede mules, an angora dolman-sleeved sweater dress, & a black cashmere cable knit sweater for $5!

We got as far as a bit north of Charlotte, North Carolina by the time Dan was too pooped drive any more, and checked into a Days Inn. Nothing fabulous, & no "points", but it was clean and safe, the coffee & their version of a Continental Breakfast was adequate, and, most importantly, the Price Was Right! Yes, we love to live in the lap of luxury & dine on ersters & sip fine wines, but there's a time & a place for a Days Inn, & when Nothing hits the spot like fresh, hot hash browns @ Huddle House! :-)

We hit snow when we hit Virginia, and by the time we got to Wytheville, VA we were ready for a rest! We literally stumbled into a great new (for us) find: the 1776 Restaurant, a beautifully restored, historic ca. 1776 log cabin offering lovely food and featuring VA wines! How lucky can 'ya get?!

 

And then we were home! (Happily sated, I fell asleep in our nice, warm Jeep & don't remember Dan's 1 1/2 hour drive on narrow, winding Route 52!) Back to the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre & the Pocahontas chugging by in the snow, St. Terry & his doggies, Lucky & Stella, curled up with Kitty, Pittie, and Lab! And some good Appleton Estate Jamaican Rum by the fireplace! And guests to get ready for!

And refreshed, relaxed and re-energized- I hope! LOL

Tune in again next week- same bat-time, same bat-channel!

Elisse & Dan's Excellent Adventure! Part Two: Cruisin'!

From Savannah, we drove down to Florida to met our Royal Caribbean ship, "Freedom of the Seas", having a seafood lunch at a "Fish Camp" on the way. We stopped at a Marshall's in Savannah, as I had a $100 gift card I'd won in a http://www.brickfish,com/ contest, and I badly needed a bathing suit that fit my fat little body... Dan got himself a pair of flipflops, and then talked me into buying a fabulous pair of high-heeled summer sandals! Cuisewear in February: Woot! We spent the night at the Hilton in Orlando (on our Hilton Honors points), as due to the shuttle launch (supposedly "the last night shuttle launch ever"), there was NOTHING available anywhere near Cape Canaveral. As I wrote in my previous post, we had No Clue about cruising (with Royal Caribbean or anything else), and had never used CheapCaribbean.com, and we were Totally delighted by both!  We boarded "Freedom of the Seas" at the Cape Canaveral Cruise Terminal, and were amazed at how smoothly and quickly everything went- absolutely no chaos! Our 5 (!) suitcases were whisked away curbside and wound up in front of our stateroom, and the next thing you know, we were happily ensconced up in the "Olive or Twist" bar, with its view of the Niki de Saint Phalle-esque sculpture-filled pool, Gin-&-Tonics in hand, & Officially On Vacation!

Since I'd booked the cheapest package possible, we steeled ourselves for a depressingly tiny closet of a window-less stateroom, but were pleasantly surprised by a romantic little room with a giant bed & a lovely hot shower big enough for two :-), that to be honest, we spent very little time in. I will say that, smartly, the lady I booked with at http://www.cheapcaribbean.com "lowered our expectations", which is probably why we were so pleased! Yes, I would have loved to have a stateroom with a balcony, and hopefully some day we will, but to me it wasn't worth an additional $2000 that we didn't have! What money we did have to spend we chose to spend on "adventures" and foodie/drinky fun! After boarding, we took the "tour" of the ship's spa (because they cleverly offered "first day" savings & the chance to win spa treatments & products!), and my wonderful husband not only indulged me in a mani-pedi, mini-facial and shampoo-&-style, but asked me to book him the Men's Spa Package! Woo-hoo! I also booked us hot stone massages for our last day at sea, and, with his encouragement (twist my arm and make me go to the spa!) had my hair done again for the ship's second "Formal Night" AND added a facial and seaweed detox body wrap to our massages!

All gussied up on our first night at sea, we did the fun Murder Mystery Dinner, starting up in "Olive or Twist" with champagne and hors d'oeurves, and then moving down to the Portofino Restaurant. Steeled for truly medicore food we were actually amazed by the fine quality! My filet mignon was actually "Pittsburgh" the way I ordered it- seared on the outside and Rare inside- and the desert of Tiramisu served in a paper-thin swirl of a chocolate bowl & topped with chocolate "antlers" blew us away! Although we intended to eat at Portofino again, we wound up dining in the regular dining room every night thereafter- a magnificent "Titanic-esque" chandelier-lit space with the requisite spiral staircase- as the food turned out to be great, and our table mates were delightful!

After dinner, we found the Connoisseur Cigar Bar, and then the Arcade, where we rode motorcycles and shot big guns!

When we got back to our stateroom we were delighted to find that fabulous, fun cruise staple: amazing towel sculpture! The charming gentleman who cared for our stateroom created a fun, new creature every evening, and even used my sunglasses to adorn them!

 

 

"Freedom of the Seas" is one of the largest cruise ships out there, with some 4500 guests and a crew of 1500! It really is an amazing thing to behold, with a climbing wall, surfing pool, mini-golf, and even an ice skating ring with a troupe of professional ice skaters! (My only regrets are that I didn't have the chance to climb the wall or ice skate at sea- so we HAVE to go back!) There were numerous shows, including the "Las Vegas Tenors", and the jazz quintet that played up in "Olive Or Twist" our last night at sea was excellent. We were particularly impressed with the spotless cleanliness of the ship (We never encountered a dirty or messy bathroom- even by the pool!) and a multi-national crew that was, almost without exception, extraordinary: helpful, charming, gracious, and good-humored. (We also loved the fact that Security was in the hands of an Israeli- and slept peacefully at night knowing it. :-)

We were VERY happy that the ship makes smokers welcome- basically THE reason we booked this cruise- and judging from the full smoking bars and empty non-smoking ones, it was crystal clear that a great portion of our fellow cruisers were smokers.

There was something to do for everyone, 24/7: kiddie programs, teen programs, family programs, elegant "Formal" dinners, card games, a choice of dining options, a spa as well as a sports center with a sauna, Casino Royale, the gaming arcade, bars & clubs & shows, numerous pools & hot tubs, and 100s of fun shore excursions to choose from, as well as Serious Shopping- and from the looks of it, there ware at least 500 Serious shoppers on our ship! I went to the "Shopping Event", lured by raffles & sweepstakes, but only lasted 5 minutes before my eyes glazed over from the hard sell & I took off to meet Dan in the hot tub! Believe it or not I'm really Not a shopaholic! 

In short: Cruising is about as far removed from "reality" as you can get and still be on planet earth. And it is GREAT for just that reason. It Truly enabled us to have a totally relaxing, romantic, and stress-free holiday that was nothing but fun- something we Badly needed!

My next post will be about our "adventures" at our 3 ports of call: Labadee, Haiti, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and Cozeumel, Mexico...

Our one main quibble with Royal Caribbean was the feeling that they "nickle-and-dimed" us to death for tons of little things that we should not have been charged for, & which thus left a sour taste in our mouths. We have 100s of receipts for all sorts of little, piddly things that we had to sign for, such as fresh-squeezed orange juice, cappuchinos and espressos with our meals, and most grating of all, bottled water. Drinking water is NOT a luxury, especially in the tropics, and Especially in places like Labadee where there is NO potable drinking water. To charge for it is WRONG, and to charge $3.75 per bottle is criminal. There should have been cases of bottled water on the pier at each port, and it should have been given out gratis when we disembarked. Period. We booked all our shore excursions through the Royal Caribbean website, and they were not inexpensive, and so we were unpleasantly surprised to learn that we had to pay $10 for a locker here, $3.75 for a bottle of water there, and so on.

Our other Big Problem was with the ship's internet service, for which we also paid extra (again, in our opinion, wrong), but which didn't work. Buying a $28 internet card (@49 cents/minute), we were NEVER able to get a message to our Inn Sitter. Given an 888 "free" phone number for shore-to-ship calling, we left numerous messages (@ $8.00 a minute!) on our home phone's answering machine, only to learn later that when it was called, a credit card was demanded! This is, quite simply, WRONG.

Another issue was that neither we nor our dinner companions- all experienced cruisers- knew- until the last day at sea- that we could have had fine cooked-to-order breakfasts and lunches in the dining room, or that we could have had breakfast in bed each morning at no additional charge! The ship's buffet, where we had breakfast most mornings, while decent, was no match for the dining room's fine food; it was what we had originally expected on a cruise, lots & lots of mediocre food.

That being said, and assuming they rectify these issues, we'd definitely cruise with Royal Caribbean again, and will def utilize http://www.cheapcaribbean.com/