Galveston to San Juan....or somewhere else. Jan 4th 2016 Wonder-Completed

[ukintheus]

We got back to our cabin and settled in to get comfy for an afternoon of doing nothing after such a hectic morning. The Princess and the Frog was on so we watched that.

Well, not quite nothing...






The wind had died down quite a bit and the seas weren't as high. It had also stopped raining while we were in Palo. We were actually starting to see blue sky in there!



Mum, Mo and I all went to deck 7 to see if there was a sunset but it was too cloudy to be a good one.



We went back to our cabins and sat out on the verandah for a while as it was quite nice out of the breeze. We got ready and went down to Diversions at 7 pm to play 2000's music trivia.



Mum looked thrilled to be there.



Anthony did a good job as usual but we were not good at that at all. (shocker!)



We went straight to Animators palate for dinner. Although it was pirate night we didn't have much pirate going on! Originally the plan had been to be in Palo tonight.





We saw Susana, she looked so cute in her pirate outfit!!



Scott and I both had pot stickers.



I also got conch chowder and he got the Mr Smee salad.




We both got the mahi mahi, which was pretty good...here's mine...


And here's Scott's courtesy of Nenad adding yummy things to it....


Nenad shelled the shrimp for him, which caused all kinds of laughter and fun.


Mo and I decided to split an order of the banana crepes....they were just "meh", neither of us thought they were great and we wouldn't order them again.



The pirate conga line then began and the dining room was having a great time in general.




Despite many pleas from Nenad and Pradip we all declined to join in the festivities and enjoyed taking photos instead.





Our pirate crew for the night - I love this photo and need to remember to send it to Nenad - he loves seeing photos of himself!


We decided to go up and watch the end of the show and the fireworks. It was packed up on deck 10 so we stood in front of the smoke stack and waited for the best part to begin.



I love it when Mickey ziplines...so cute!




The fireworks were fun and we had a great view of them.







We managed to sneak our way around and get into an elevator as soon as the fireworks were over and we were back in the cabin by 10:35 pm. This monkey was hanging around waiting for us.


We went straight to bed and read until 11:40 pm and of course I got caught up with my trip report - it's hard to keep track of these super-busy days!

 

[bcwife76]

Well after a bit of a rough start (oh my, those pool waves ) it's amazing how quickly the weather can change! Glad it cleared up for Pirate Night! Palo, as always, looked delicious

 

[cheermom2four]

Enjoying your TR so far! This is one of the itiniraries I want to do in the future. Have only done a three nighter on the Magic and have a 7 nighter on the Fantasy coming up in less than 6 months.

 

[ukintheus]

Day 4 - At Sea



I woke up at about 7:30 and peered outside and the sun was shining. Scott was still asleep so I got back in bed for an hour before getting in the shower. Mo sent a message that Mum wasn't feeling good this morning and had got up in the night feeling queasy so they were slow moving this morning. Seeing as she had gone all day yesterday in the rougher weather and had been fine, we figured it had to be a bug of some kind. Scott and I went to Cove for a coffee or two and then to BBB for a bite of breakfast.



The decks were absolutely full as everyone tried to make the most of our last at sea day and the first day of sunshine. We tried to get a spot by the pool, but there were not many loungers left in the shade, maybe an odd one here or there, so we gave it up as a lost cause. I got a message from Mo that Mum still wasn't feeling good and had gone back to bed so we headed off to the gift shop to see if they sold any ginger chews but unfortunately they didn't. We got back to our room just as Cho was finishing up and sat out on the verandah enjoying the peace and quiet and the sound of the waves.



We decided to camp out there and not bother with the upper decks as it was nice and peaceful and in the shade. It also meant we could be close to Mum and Mo if Mum needed anything. We were going past some very pretty islands and I snapped these photos. They had to be part of the Bahamas, I think, but I'm not 100% sure.





It was such a beautiful day, not a cloud in sight and all the nasty weather was behind us.



We decided to go to Know It All trivia at 11:45 in the Promenade lounge and Mo came along as Mum was sleeping.






We didn't do too bad, much better than music trivia anyway. Scott had a beer, I had my first Bahama mama of the cruise



... and mo had a caipirinha.



We went to Goofys on the way back and Scott got a couple of sandwiches and I got an ice cream (first of the cruise I might point out )



Mum still wasn't feeling good when we got back, which began to get a bit worrying. She had back pain and we wondered if it was anything to do with her kidneys. We hung out on the veranda for a little while. Mum didn't seem to be any better, in fact was seeming a bit worse and couldn't keep down anything, including water, so I went and got her some ice to see if she could keep that down.

Scott went to deck 7 aft to sit outside for a bit.





We could begin to see the coast of the Dominican Republic off in the distance which was pretty mountainous and looked beautiful but it was still too far in the distance. We went back and forth between the decks and our room to check on Mum and just while away the beautiful afternoon.



We went to Pub Trivia with Tony as the host at 3:15 and did horribly, yet again. You'd think we'd have learned our lesson by now! Scott and I went to get a snack of pizza and a cream cheese filled pretzel and sat at Cove pool for about 30 minutes as there were now a couple of loungers.





We walked back on deck 10 and the coastline of the Domincan Republic was looking beautiful. There were lots of people up on deck taking photographs and just admiring the view.





We got back to the cabin and checked to see if Mo wanted to come to deck 7, but as Mum still was in bed she decided to stay with Mum. Scott and I went back to 7 to watch the sun set and were rewarded with yet another beautiful end of day. I don't apologize for all the sunset photos - they make me wish I was right back there!









As it got darker, we could see the lights from the coastline of the Dominican Republic, it was really beautiful. Several people were on deck 7 aft taking photos and we got chatting to a couple who were kind enough to take a photo, so we reciprocated the favor.

 

[ukintheus]

Mum wasn't feeling much better and we mulled over the idea of getting in touch with the med center, but she didn't want to. We had a 7 pm Palo reservation, which of course Mum wasn't going to make, but she really wanted all of us to go anyway, so we got ourselves dressed up and got to Palo just before 7. The lovely Susana was our server and we had a wonderful meal with lots of laughs.





Susana got us our antipasti plate, with cheese on the side for the one that doesn't like cheese.





I got this cocktali - I think it's a lemon drop, but I'm not sure now and I didn't write it in my notes. I know I enjoyed it though!



I had the calamari and Scott had the grilled shrimp.


There always has to be a pepper grinder photo when Scott and Susana get together....here's the token one from this trip as she puts pepper on his shrimp.



Then Scott and I both had the gnocci. I had it in the sauce that is on the menu, which has Gorgonzola (I think), and he had it in a marinara sauce. His was WAY better I think. The white creamy sauce was overpowering and didn't really sit well in my tummy.





Then was the sorbet as the palate cleanser. The chef also came out and spoke to us and we had a lot of fun chatting and laughing.



Even though we were all already stuffed at this point we soldiered on and I had the lamb, while Scott had the beef filet.





Although I am not putting the photos in here, Mo had bean soup, mushroom risotto, lamb and zabaglioni and she said that all of it was absolutely wonderful.

We had joked with another table that we wanted to be their best friends as they popped a bottle of champagne, and it was very sweet of them to donate the rest of the bottle to us for dessert, although we were so stuffed by this point it was hard to even think about dessert....and yet....

Coffee gelato for Scott with special decorations by Susana...


and the souffle for me....


with both sauces added....(I feel mildly nauseas even looking at all this food right now! )



We then had the "alka seltzer" which was very yummy and we chatted and basically closed down the restaurant from talking to Susana for so long!



So, the story on the rose petals is that on our last cruise we started using tiny pieces of petal to cover all our spills. This was our table this time...



Evidently we just needed a new table cloth!



It was another great evening but it was a shame that Mum wasn't well and had to miss it. When we got back to the room, she was still feeling very unwell so Mo and I decided to give her until the morning and then said it was down to the medical center whether she liked it or not!

Here is the little guy that was waiting for us when we got back.



The clocks went forward another hour tonight so it was 12:20 when I turned out the light after catching up with my trip report.

 

[bcwife76]

Yay for sunny, warm days!!!

That dinner looks divine! The rose petals, I remember that from your last TR. Boy you sure are a bunch of sloppy drunks

Those sunset photos are stunning, please share as many as you can, woohoo!

I'm so sorry to hear that your mum was so ill, I'm hoping there is a happy ending and that it didn't prove to be something much worse

 

[ukintheus]

Yay for sunny, warm days!!!

That dinner looks divine! The rose petals, I remember that from your last TR. Boy you sure are a bunch of sloppy drunks

Those sunset photos are stunning, please share as many as you can, woohoo!

I'm so sorry to hear that your mum was so ill, I'm hoping there is a happy ending and that it didn't prove to be something much worse

Yes, we are obviously absolute slobs when it comes to eating! The really funny part is, we try so hard not to make a mess!! Glad you like the sunset photos. Next installment about to start.

 

[ukintheus]

Day 5 - St Thomas



So today started very early when Maureen texted that Mum was no better and so we were going to need to take her to the medical center. We called down to guest services to inquire about a wheelchair, and they told us to go down to deck 1 early, before people started to get up and moving and that they were available there for no charge. I went down to deck 1 at about 7 am and grabbed one of the three wheelchairs that were there and we took Mum down to the med center at about 8 am. We had to fill out the standard medical forms and there was only one person ahead of us (who was there for gastro issues also). Not one to miss an opportunity to have a very thorough trip report, I took photos. Hey! A trip report is a trip report....good and bad.

This is the check in area.



They saw her quickly and we were soon in a room.



There were two nurses and one doctor, and all of them were extremely nice. The medical center was about what I would have expected, if I had ever thought about what it looked like - which I hadn't! Ha ha!



Mum was diagnosed with a very nasty kidney infection and they gave her a bag of fluids by IV and an antibiotic. While we were down there waiting for the IV fluids to get done, we could feel the thrusters, they shimmied the ship pretty well!. Scott texted to say we were docking and he had been out and about taking photos.



St. Thomas is so beautiful, I just love it there!









They got finished with the IV and gave us antibiotics and pain relievers to take with us but the doctor said that they would need to see her again that evening and they left the cannula in just in case. I think we were down there about 2 hours. We were scheduled to do an excursion going over to St. John (St. John Island Tour) that day and so Scott, Mo and I debated on the best thing to do. In the end Scott and I decided to go and Maureen would stay with Mum. We knew that Mum would be really upset if she felt that she had “spoiled” the cruise for us, so the best thing was to just try and make the best of it.

I went and grabbed a sandwich for Maureen from Goofy’s, and Scott and I ran up and had a quick lunch at BBB.



This was veggie lasagna and it was really good!



We packed for our excursion and had to go to Wavebands to meet up with the tours. Wavebands was packed with people, you could tell everyone was excited to be doing something after 3 days at sea. We got rounded up into our group, which was large, and headed out of the ship onto the dock where we waited for the excursion operators to meet us. It was a very short walk to the boat that would be transporting us over to St. John.



The Kon Tiki was leaving as we were boarding and was already sounding like a party. .



We elected to sit inside as the outside was already pretty crowded and I didn’t want to sit in the sun for the entire journey over. The journey over was very smooth and pleasant and the tour operator gave some good information on what we were passing, he also commented on how smooth the sea was that day, and I had heard it can be quite rough, so we got really lucky.

One of the many mega-mansions.





This bay sat behind a reef. It looked absolutely picture perfect.



It wasn’t long before we were coming into Cruz bay on St. John. We were broken into groups and boarded an open air bus, which is typical of the islands and is a truck with a seating cab on the back.



This is a better view of what they look like...sort of... This guy was giving Scott the evil eye for taking a photo, but then busted out laughing.



We started off around the winding roads and soon came to a point where we could see the very famous, and very pricey Caneel Bay resort.





The resort is very large and stretches around this part of the island into several of the bays. It looked beautiful, but it wasn’t quite as beautiful as I had pictured it – I guess because of the $$ factor! Their cheapest rooms are almost $800/night with premium view rooms at $1300/night.



The drive continued around the coastline and we saw other beautiful beaches including Cinnamon Bay and Maho Bay.





They were all gorgeous and I wish we could have had some time to dip our toes into the water! At one of the stops, we could see Jost Van Dyke and Tortola in the distance.



Sigh....



Throwing an "ick" factor in there....this is a termite nest.



We stopped at the Annaberg Ruins, which used to be a Danish sugar mill.



It was quite a steep climb to get up to the top but the view was wonderful.



We could easily see Tortola, and it seemed weird that it was going to take us all night to get there! It was really close!



The ruins were interesting, and the short stop there was a perfect amount of time (if you get my drift). I could have looked at the view of the surrounding islands forever though.





We meandered around the ruins for a little while and then made our way back to the bus. We didn’t make any more stops on our way back to Cruz Bay but the driver was very good about pointing things out.





We got back to town with plenty of time to do some shopping so we decided to walk to a shopping center that had looked interesting as we drove by.

 

[ukintheus]

The shopping center was a very short walk, just a couple of minutes and there were some lovely shops in there and it had quite a few tourists milling about enjoying the day.





We bought some Christmas ornaments and then found our way to the St. John Brewery and had a beer each while we sat outside on the balcony. The Tap Room had a fire several months earlier, so they were in a different location but we found them anyway!





The shopping center felt very tropical and it would have been easy to have spent an afternoon and evening wandering around the shops and restaurants.



We got back to the dock and sat at the back of the boat, which was noisy because of the engines, but it was out of the sun and we were able to sit by ourselves.



The journey back was lovely in the breeze and the scenery is just so beautiful.





Looking back towards St. John and Tortola.





A good photo op of our "ride" waiting for us.



We docked where we had been picked up, which is basically the other side of the pier from where the Wonder was docked and we were back on board without too much of a wait, I would say about 10 minutes.

Of course the first thing was to check on Mum, who was no better and actually had got a little worse during the course of the afternoon. Maureen and I took her back to the medical center at 5 pm. The doctor confirmed that she wasn't really any better, and decided to give her more IV fluids and changed the antibiotic she had been given. We were down there for another couple of hours and it began to sink in that we were going to have to come up with a plan B!

Meanwhile...Scott was out and about taking photos. Nothing quite like having an official photographer in the group!





A beautiful, but short-lived, sunset.





Night falling on Charlotte Amalie.





So, back in the med center.. The doctor told us that if Mum wasn't any better by morning, that they would need to take her off the ship and admit her into a hospital in Tortola. Hmm... We left the med center with that little nugget of info and got back to the cabins and had a group discussion (without Mum, who was pretty much out of it by this point). We had purchased the trip insurance, but Mum was obviously pretty ill at this point, and I was really concerned about being on a tiny island like Tortola and having to deal with all that would come with that. The ship's protocol is that they hand you over to their port agent, who then takes care of everything. Whatever "everything" is, and that seemed very scary given how quickly her condition seemed to be deteriorating. So, this is where the crazy part comes in - we are never ones to not have an adventure - . We are lucky enough that we have a relative who has a private jet....yup, a private jet. Yup, you heard me right....a private jet. And that relative got a call from me! It took an hour or so of us trying to reach each other, but eventually we did get through, and they didn't even hesitate to get the plane scrambled and on it's way. I can't say enough for that. The plane was going to be in Tortola by about 9 am the next morning.

So - we madly started packing our suitcases and Scott and I ran down into the dining room to apologise to Nenad and Pradip for being a no-show at dinner and to say goodbye. We continued packing and also ran up to Palo to tell Susana goodbye. There were a lot of phone calls to and from the US about the plane and all they needed to know, and I know that Scott and I ran up to Plutos at one point and grabbed a hamburger for us and Mo, as it's all that was open. I went to guest services at about midnight to ask about the protocol for getting off the ship in Tortola and to hand in our tip envelopes. They were very helpful and it was all very easy. I would get a call from the clearance officer as soon as he came on duty the next morning at about 6 am and he would tell us everything that we needed to do. It was about 1:30 am when we finally got to bed but we had a plan!

 

[cruisehopeful]

Mum was diagnosed with a very nasty kidney infection

I'm so sorry to read this. She must have felt awful.

We are lucky enough that we have a relative who has a private jet....yup, a private jet. Yup, you heard me right....a private jet.

That is awesome! I would be scared to death to end up in a hospital like that on an island or in a third world country. That is so nice that you had a private jet available!

 

[ukintheus]

So this first part is a bit boring with no photos - even diligent trip reporters like me sometimes get swept up in the drama and don't take photos!

The clearance officer (Michael) called at about 6 am and was so nice and helpful. I had to give him details of the plane we were going to be on for him to give to the immigration people and we had to be down in the Cadillac Lounge by 7 am with our passports so that we could go through immigration. We all scrambled and Scott went to grab a coffee for Maureen and himself before we headed down there. Mum definitely was getting worse, and so it made it very easy to know we had made the right decision. There was another family getting off the cruise in Tortola, although theirs was planned, and we all sat and waited for the British Virigin Island authorities to come on board. They set a table up for them and they had coffee, fruit juice and a few pastries available, which was very tempting seeing as we hadn't even considered breakfast. This was the first time the Wonder had been to Tortola, so it was a new port for them. The officials came on and sat and went through the passenger roster to clear it first. Then they took our passports and the immigration forms we had been given to fill out, and cleared us very easily. Maureen took Mum to the med center as she needed to get the cannula out and Scott and I went back to our cabins to collect all our luggage.

Michael had told us that he would contact guest services and have them send someone to help with all our luggage. We had to wait a while (seemed like forever at the time, I'm not going to lie ) but someone did arrive and right behind them was Deniece the guest services manager. She was very sweet and helpful, and had remembered that she was going to give us a lithograph and brought it with her! She also helped us with our luggage and we made our way down to deck 1 and set up camp outside the med center. It was about 8:30 at this point. Scott stayed guard with the bags and I went in to check on Mum. We ended up being there for quite a while as the doctor wanted to make sure that Mum was completely safe to fly. I think he was shocked that we had already got plans underway and were heading off the ship but he gathered himself quite quickly. Even though he technically couldn't tell us that she was cleared to fly (against their protocol) he was helpful and basically told us that we were doing the right thing. They gave her another bag of IV fluids and did some cardiac enzyme tests before releasing her and it was about 9:30 am when we were ready to go.

The ship's port agent was also waiting outside with Scott, along with Michael (clearance officer) and Deniece. We thanked everyone for helping us and a security guard and the port agent walked us off the ship and around the port to the parking lot where they had a taxi van waiting for us. Again, thanking the port agent and the security guy, we said goodbye again and were soon on our way to the airport, which is on the very far end of the island so it took us about 20 minutes to get there.

The plane was ready for us, we just had to go through immigration and so we sat and waited while someone took our passports to do that. Here's a photo! I busted my camera out again.

Photo of a photo...it was the best I could come up with. This was the old airport, it's much fancier now, but very, very small.


Tortola airport terminal.


The runway ends where the water starts!


Taking off.


We flew over the Wonder in port.




The plane needed fuel, which isn't available on Tortola, so the pilots told us that they were scheduled to stop on St. Thomas (hey! we were just there! ) and that we would clear U.S. customs and immigration there. Within a few minutes we were landing again.



Welcome to St. Thomas.


Unfortunately the immigration people on St. Thomas were working on island time and despite the fact we had a little old lady in a wheelchair, who was passing out from time to time, they kept us waiting an hour before they let us back on the plane. There were literally 3 people ahead of us in line so it was frustrating but we got finished eventually and got back on the plane to continue the journey.

This is St. John.




It was pretty uneventful the rest of the way with the exception of the fact that Scott figured out that we were flying over Nassau and got this photo of the Dream in port and didn't tell me! What was he thinking!



We made a stop in New Orleans for fuel as there was a bad headwind apparently and we didn't have enough for clearance into Houston. We arrived at Houston Hobby airport at about 5:30 pm and my brother had arranged for an ambulance to meet us there. It was waiting on the tarmac and they literally took Mum off the plane and put her into the ambulance, made sure her vitals were stabilized, and took her straight to the hospital where she was admitted into intensive care. The good news is that she is now fully recovered. She had to have surgery as the tube from the kidney had become kinked, they think it had probably been like that all of her life, but just as she has got older it had become worse, and her kidney was in failure as it wasn't able to drain. As you can see from our earlier photos, she had no real warning at all that she was even feeling ill!

So, we never made it to San Juan, but we did have a great cruise right up until Mum got sick, and I am still very glad that we didn't have to admit Mum into hospital in Tortola given the seriousness of her condition. I will just say that I managed to squeeze in booking a dummy date for all of us to cruise again (which Mum and Maureen didn't know about until now) so we have more adventures on the high seas awaiting us!

Thanks for following along. We love to have adventures no matter what's going on, it all makes for good trip reports.

 

[ukintheus]

I'm so sorry to read this. She must have felt awful.

That is awesome! I would be scared to death to end up in a hospital like that on an island or in a third world country. That is so nice that you had a private jet available!

I always buy the insurance to be on the safe side and for the peace of mind, but the reality is that when someone is REALLY sick, you just know that it's not a great option, even if it's the only option, when you are on very small islands, with very limited amenities. I guess in the back of my mind I had always known I had the safety net of our relative, if we ever should need it, and that made it 1000 times easier than it could have been. I am very glad we didn't have to deal with the alternative. As you can see, it all ended OK.

 

[bcwife76]

Wow, well that took a dramatic turn!!

First off, St Thomas is gorgeous - I bet you would like to go back and spend more time there! I know I would

Hopefully you will be able to make a return visit to Tortola in the near future (perhaps using that placeholder!!)

I am so sorry to hear about all the health problems with your mum, what a scary time for you all I must say you all head it together wonderfully (well at least from what I am reading!) Finally knowing someone with a private plane came in handy I'm glad you were able to get her to Houston because it sounds quite serious, doesn't bare thinking about what could have happened to her. And the best news of all is that she's made a full recovery!

Looking forward to reading about your future adventures, though try and make it a little less dramatic next time, ok?

 

[tennesseemo]

Umm. What? Booked a what?

 

[bcwife76]

Umm. What? Booked a what?

Seems your sister is full of surprises!!! Glad to hear your mum is doing so much better Mo!

 

[ukintheus]

Wow, well that took a dramatic turn!!

First off, St Thomas is gorgeous - I bet you would like to go back and spend more time there! I know I would

Hopefully you will be able to make a return visit to Tortola in the near future (perhaps using that placeholder!!)

I am so sorry to hear about all the health problems with your mum, what a scary time for you all I must say you all head it together wonderfully (well at least from what I am reading!) Finally knowing someone with a private plane came in handy I'm glad you were able to get her to Houston because it sounds quite serious, doesn't bare thinking about what could have happened to her. And the best news of all is that she's made a full recovery!

Looking forward to reading about your future adventures, though try and make it a little less dramatic next time, ok?

I would love to go and spend some time on St. John. It's on my bucket list for when we win the lottery, and is conveniently very close to Tortola, although the Fantasy goes to Tortola now too.... Decisions, decisions... I still am so grateful to have had the option of getting Mum home within a few hours and her condition deteriorated so quickly on the flight home that that part was scary. I don't know if direct transport home would have been an option from Tortola through the insurance coverage system, but I didn't want to find out!

Thanks for following along and hopefully the next one will be less drama filled.

 

[ukintheus]

Umm. What? Booked a what?

Dummy date...so nothing picked yet and we have all the fun of deciding where to go next.

 

[Huskiesrule]

Thanks for a drama filled trip report! Now I need to find someone who has a personal plane just in case

 

[ukintheus]

Thanks for a drama filled trip report! Now I need to find someone who has a personal plane just in case

It was a nice thing to have and I'm very grateful. Now I just need to figure out how to ask use it in non-emergencies.

 

[Huskiesrule]

It was a nice thing to have and I'm very grateful. Now I just need to figure out how to ask use it in non-emergencies.

I'm seeing unlimited use to fly to Florida to go to WDW and more DCL cruises! If you need someone to fly with, I'll fly down to Texas and sacrifice myself