| Happy birthday to me as we arrived in St. Maarten. Yes, I'd reached the grand old age of twenty-one - times two! I don't mind admitting my age because no one believes I am, and I've had no help in retaining my youthful looks. They say smoking ages your skin yet I smoked from October 1986-January 2008 and it didn't age me. SUN ages you, which I tend to stay out of because I burn and have loads of moles which could turn cancerous. That's why so many people years younger have more wrinkles. I don't even have crows feet - hehe! So I had a busy day ahead of me, planned by Ken MacLean on Norwegian Epic. Remember him? He was mentioned at the beginning of this review as having booked his cruise specifically to be there that day because he fancies the arse off me. Because I was now another year older, I got up at 6.30am and when I went on deck, it was a bit nippy and windy. MSC Poesia was docking, Norwegian Epic was ahead, Navigator of the Seas was miles behind and to my surprise, Sea Dream I tootled past the Royal Caribbean en route to St. Barths for a few hours before heading to Marigot. It was a lovely reunion for not only had I set foot on all four ships (visited Poesia, cruised on the rest) but they'd all been in Southampton. Navigator had been my third cruise during her only season in 2007 and I hadn't seen her since she left that November. Connie had been my second about six weeks earlier. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
No time for any real breakfast so I tucked into my pile of apples. Carmel phoned about ten minutes before I was heading out and sang to me, thankfully only one line. Ken was under orders not to otherwise he'd end up in the drink! We'd arranged to meet at 8.30pm. Because we didn't know which pier we'd each be at, it was gangway if the same and gate if not so bloody handy we shared the pier. I beat him to it and watched as their Captain Sere Slovenes came down the gangway, met up with a couple of our lot (though no Captain Pep pas in sight) as well as mingling with the passengers. Captain Slovenes was on my wonderful October trip. Ken appeared, spoke briefly to the Captain then the Epic photographers hassled even though we kept saying I'm on Connie. Oh well. They'd have fun trying to match my face when they downloaded them. He had booked a tour through Bernard's Tours and was told to meet them at the yellow building. Which one???? |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Connie may be small next to Epic but she's perfectly formed - like me! They meant the tourist information desk. Why the hell didn't they say that in their email to him???? There were already a lot of people waiting and before we could go, they took the cash. We were then led off to two buses, our driver being John, and some people thought I was Ken's wife (including John). I was the only Connie cruiser on the bus, most being from Epic and one family from Navy. Aircon was on maximum freeze to death, which aggravated my cough. There was refreshments included, which was good, and not just one drink either. First stop, thanks to bloody kids, was feeding some iguanas. It made me laugh how everyone else who said they didn't want to, got off. Ken and I stayed in the bus. We had about ten minutes at something then off to L'Orient beach, which was also part nudist. One old man was showing off his crown jewels, just standing there until some kids came along then he disappeared. We were there a ridiculous one hour, forty-five minutes, which the email hadn't mentioned. In fact, the email had said we could be back by 2pm but clearly this wasn't going to the case. Ken bought me lunch at Pedro's, which was awful. It costs €10 each and when he came to pay, they changed it to dollars! Bloody rip off merchants. He also bought me a towel/bag thing to wrap around my shoulders because it was bloody cold in the shade of the cafe. Not bad for someone who claims he doesn't use cash. It was here he gave me my birthday presents which were a tree ornament from Epic and a gorgeous blue topaz and diamond pendant. Hadn't expected that, which is quite weird considering he only knew me from Facebook, and said I'd wear it that night to dinner. The text from Vodafone said it was 9.6ppm to receive calls so I texted my dad saying phone, which he did. It was the first time we'd spoken since the 3rd and he was glad. I wished my mum were still around so I could tell her about the trip so far. She'd have enjoyed hearing about it as she always did. Then it was off to Marigot, where we passed SeaDream I anchored in the bay. Ken wanted John to stop but when you're on the road, it's not worth it. Every ship nut knows that and only idiots don't consider fellow passengers and traffic behind in their selfishness. Here it bloody poured, and not the warm rain of Aruba or Barbados but cold like at home. We had half an hour but as soon as I felt the first spots, it was straight back to the bus while everyone else got soaked. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Final stop was the famous Sunset Bar & Grill where you watched the planes taking off and, more importantly, coming into land right over the beach. Now I'm no plane nut but even I enjoyed the thrill of this, though wasn't daft enough to stand by the fence when one took off unlike Ken, who criticised them for doing it then went and joined them. If he had a death wish, he only had to sing at me. We were here an hour and weren't planning on going back to the ship until 2.30pm, so he lied about them writing in their emails about getting you back sooner. He bought me a T-shirt to have as a memento to say I'd been there. We were just leaving when a passenger plane was coming so Ken and I got out while others took photos through the window. It would have been fun being underneath on the beach when it went over. The father of the Navigator family was staying on, and told to get back soon because traffic would be horrendous. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Back to the port and while Ken got money from the cash machine (he was doing well for someone who stately publicly on Facebook he never uses it), I waited by security. He seemed to be having trouble with his card since it took a while but finally he came back and we walked back to our respective transport. MSC Poesia had sailed at 2.30pm, which we'd wanted to get back for and again that idiot had wanted to stop in busy traffic to take photos of as we spotted her. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| When I got to my cabin, I was surprised to see flowers waiting for me from Ken. This had been a great birthday so far, despite my back. I can't remember the last time I'd had a good one. Not in recent years anyway. 2010 we'd had my mum's funeral five days before so nothing registered (or at Christmas) and my 40th in 2009 wasn't anything special when it should have been. I did like how the accompanying card with the flowers said "Suite" when it was a cheap inside cabin. But why don't flowers you get from florists smell any more? It's stupid. They leave lilies to stink the place out but roses and others they remove the scent from. May as well be plastic and they die faster. |
 |
 |
| I had a snack in the Seaside and bumped into Bill, who said he'd give me his address at dinner so I'd know where to send the photo of him with the Captain. Then it was time for sailaway. We were leaving first at 5pm while the other two were an hour later. The sun was beginning to set which made it look like Connie was spewing fire from her funnel. Barbara and Cheryl found me on deck as we left the beautiful island behind. This is one place I'd love to go back to and had been on my wish list if I'd made it to the Caribbean. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |