Reggae Revolution ~ By Pirate Captain Mike

We didn't have as much fun in Hawaii on Cruise 10 as we thought we would. In fact, we were somewhat disappointed. On the whole, everything was very expensive and not really special. Not only that, Hawaiian music is terrible. We couldn't wait to get back to the Caribbean on Cruise 11. We wanted a Reggae Revolution!

This cruise was supposed to include Aruba; but, because of a misprint on Travelocity's website, we got the wrong itinerary. Instead of going to Aruba, our cruise went to Antigua and St. Lucia. We have been to those place many times before. Aruba is one of our favorites, and it was disappointing that we weren't going to stop there on this cruise. Many cruises ago we were in St. Maarten and bought some music from a street vendor. The band was Fab 5 - Party Mix 2. We listen to this CD all the time. On this cruise we were on a mission to find new Caribbean music. Kimmy came up with the idea of Caribbean Idol. We tried to get local people to sing for us and got a couple good ones, but overall it was hard to find good talent. We told people that we would pay them $3 if they sang a song for our Caribbean Idol video. Kimmy had to talk many people into it. The video was really fun to make. We have a lot of videos on YouTube and really appreciate when someone leaves us a nice comment. I think the videos are the best part of the cruise websites. We enjoy finding good music to go along with our videos. Cruise 11 Kim and I have been going on two cruises a year for a little over 5 years. We love cruising and think it's the best way to see a lot of places and get really pampered with great food. For Cruise 10 we went with Pickles and Gail. They were fun to cruise with. This cruise Kim wanted it to be just us. Everyone at our dinner table was really nice. We enjoyed swapping stories of what we did during the day. The food and service were also very good. Everything was good on Cruise 11: the food, the service, and the stops. However, we still would like to have gone to Aruba. In addition, we would have liked to have spent more time at sea so that we could have enjoyed the ship more Adventure of the Seas This ship was huge. It was a great ship and even had an ice skating rink on Deck 3. The Promenade Deck was also really nice. It was a street with shops and bars on either side. There were two parades on the Promenade Deck. The pool area was nice. The pool band was good. However, it was crowded around the pool and we didn't get to use any of the hot tubs. We did swim in one of the crowded pools. We saw a few of the shows on the ship. “Revolution,” a Beatles cover band, did a tribute show that was really good. Kim bought the CD, and we really like the first few songs. The ice show was also really good. Because the rink is smaller than normal, the performers really came close to the walls. They did a lot of good tricks. We didn't have enough time on the ship to take advantage of everything that was available. I tried in-line skating. It was fun, but I also wanted to try the rock climbing wall and ice skating. We just didn't have time for it. Royal Caribbean is our favorite cruise line. We always have a good time when we go on them. Barbados This was our fourth trip to Barbados. Kimmy climbed on rocks that you aren't supposed to climb on. We have it on video. We spent most of the day on an excursion called the 5 Star Tiami Sail with turtles, snorkeling and lunch. It was a good sail and a friendly staff, but not as nice as the Golden Eagle Catamaran Sails we have taken. We saw a lot of turtles. The snorkeling was ok but nothing compares to the snorkeling in Aruba. We always stop at Cheffette whenever we are in Barbados. It's the fastfood restaurant of Barbados. Can you believe they don't have a McDonalds? The food is ok. Kimmy said the fried chicken was good. St. Lucia We took a taxi and spent the day at the beach at St. Lucia. The beach wasn't crowded when we got there. We had to pay for chairs and the people were really pushy. They constantly came over and tried to sell us something. We did find some of the better Caribbean Idol singers in St. Lucia. I thought the people were way too aggressive and I couldn't enjoy just chilling out on the beach. I tried parasailing. It was fun. I brought two cameras with me so I could take one up in the air and Kimmy could film from the beach. It was around a 20-minute ride, and the rope was about 400 feet long. I've always wanted to do a video using that "believe it not" song for a parasailing video. After getting back from the beach, we spent an hour walking around the city of Castries. We didn't see anything good. It started to rain really hard, and we went back to the ship. Antigua It rained until noon. We didn't get a chance to go to the beach that we wanted to go to. Last time I was in Antigua I bought two really nice pairs of shoes cheap. I was looking forward to going shoe shopping again. I bought three pairs for $110. We got to see the pineapple lady again. She was there the last time we were in Antigua. She is something to see. She dances all day for tips. There is music playing. Other people come up and ask her if they can try it but they have a hard time balancing the pineapple. She makes it look easy. Like it's glued to her head. It's fun to watch. (It also makes me think maybe my job isn't so bad after all.) We got a few good Caribbean Idol singers in Antigua. Johnny Jacob tried really hard for us. Justin was really hard to understand but I like his rap.

St. Maarten This is always our favorite stop. Orient Beach is our favorite beach. We always go to the nude side of the beach and get naked. It is so much fun, but there is a lot of bad naked there. The water is beautiful. We ate at Chez Leandra again. It was fantastic. The restaurant is right on the beach. The food was really good and the prices weren't bad. There is plenty of stuff to do at Orient Beach, and we look forward to going back again.

The shopping is also really good in St. Maarten. I bought 5 cartons of Marlboro Cigarettes for $70. In Richmond they cost $27 a carton. I got a free Ferrari travel bag with the smokes. It's like a rolling bag you would see at an airport. He also gave me a free lighter. The cigarettes are made in Switzerland and taste the same.

We got a few girls to sing for Caribbean Idol. A couple of them were good. After the first two girls sang, the other girls volunteered to sing for free.

St. Thomas
We had a good time on the Turtle Cover Sail & Snorkel with Power Snorkeling. We tried power snorkeling in Barbados on another cruise. Kim really likes it. These power snorkels were supposed to be better than the ones we used before. The instructor said that if you click it three times, your bikini top might get sucked into the power snorkel, so Kim was afraid to click it three times. Mine had a little boogie to it. I think I'm the first person to Ghost Ride the Power Snorkel.

The ship was named the Doubloon. It looked like an old pirate ship. The crew was really friendly, but they should have had pirate names. They served a lot of rum punch after we went snorkeling. The snorkeling was pretty good. I brought crackers and the fish went nuts.

We saw a lot of turtles also. At the end of the sail, we all got tattoos. It was a good excursion, and I bought a T-shirt so that I would remember it.

We were really disappointed that Cuzzin's was closed again! They always close in September, and that is one of our favorite months to cruise. We walked around looking for another place to eat and didn't really find anything that appealed to us.

After that we took a taxi to Emerald Beach. It was a cheaper ride than to Magen's Bay. Emerald Beach was really pretty, and there was almost nobody there. I was bored. Kim fell asleep under a palm tree. The water was nice, but I wish we had gone to Magen's Bay or Koki Beach.

Our Room
We rented a balcony room. They are really nice because it is great to be able to get fresh air in the room. We saw a lot of flying fish and a few dolphins from the balcony. The TV was in a weird place, and there wasn't a really good place to put my laptop so that we could watch DVDs. We always give the DVDs that we watch to our waiters and room steward at the end of the cruise. The room steward was really nice. He even let me borrow about 6 of his Caribbean CDs that I ripped into iTunes. A few of them were really good.

We ordered a lot of room service. A lot! Probably three times a day. We had breakfast delivered to the room. Then we would go out on an island all day. When we came back, we would order room service before dinner. Then we would go to dinner, go to a show, or walk around the ship and come back and order room service again. I love room service! The food was ok. Kimmy liked the chicken drumettes. We also got soup, pizza, sandwiches, and lots of iced tea. Having a small refrigerator in the room was a great convenience.

We were in a nice room on the seventh floor amidships. We always decorate the door so it's easy to find our room.

Summary
I liked Cruise 11 on the Adventure of the Seas. I like being on a really big ship because there are a lot of things to do. The food and service were good. Our balcony room was nice, and we got to see some flying fish and dolphins. I would recommend this cruise, but I would take it with the Aruba itinerary.

Mike & Kim's Cruise 11 Back to the Beach Sept. 23 - 30, 2007

Check out our videos on YouTube!

Music used for web pages:
Reggae Revolution - Ziggy Marley - Reggae Revolution
Kimmy's Reviews - Beres Hammond - Can't Stop A Man
Captain's Log - Collie Buddz - Let Me Know

Music used for movies:
Caribbean Idol - Caribbean Idol Theme
Adventure of the Seas - Ziggy Marley - Electric Avenue
Power Snorkeling - Steel Pulse - Steppin' Out
Orient Beach - I Lee - Rockin' Down Town
Parasailing - Joey Scarbury - Believe It or Not
Barbados - Steel Pulse - Ravers
Emerald Beach - Gregory Issac - Private Beach Party
Dancing Pineapple Lady - Bob Marley - Sun is Shining

Special Thanks:
Robert Anderson - For taking care of my house while we were gone

There are over 351 photos, 9 movies,
and some hidden treasure.
We took 976 pictures on Cruise 11.
Cruise 11 is 700 MB.

"Watch Caribbean Idol!" ~ Pirate Captain Mike

Thank you for checking out our Cruise 11 web site,
and we hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures!