Caribbean/Bermuda Cruise | Celebrity Summit

Back in April we went on an 8 Night Caribbean & Bermuda cruise on the Celebrity Summit. We left Friday night and flew from Austin (via Houston) and arrived in San Juan around 5am. We stayed at the "Airport Hotel" literally inside the airport and slept for about 5 hours. We went straight to the ship and had lunch. We thought about getting off the boat to go to Old San Juan but since that's not where our ship was docked and we only had a few hours of sleep the night before we opted for a nap instead (shocker right?!).

Our balcony cabin

My parents giant balcony...where we spent a lot of our time!

The Norwegian Gem before we sailed away

Our first stop was St. Maarten and it was such a beautiful day! We took a tour that first went to Orient beach (with a couple of scenic stops on the way). The beach was so SO pretty! The water was a little chilly but felt really good since it was hot outside. There is a nude beach/hotel a little ways down the beach so we saw some lovely older people walking down the beach...gross! 

Can't beat waking up to this view

After some beach time at Orient Bay we got back on our little bus and headed across the island to Maho Beach. During our tour we got to see both the Dutch & the French side of the island and learned a lot of interesting facts about the island and its people. Maho beach is right next to the St. Maarten airport and people come to either experience the blow back from the engines - or watch all the fools out there experiencing it! We (minus dad) were in the "let's watch all these fools get sand blasted" group! We ate lunch at the restaurant/bar on the beach and watched the planes take off & land. It was pretty darn fun!

15 week baby bump!

Our next stop was St. Thomas and since we have been there several times we wanted to do something different this time. My mom found a private catamaran snorkel trip through a relative via facebook. I took a dramamine right when we got on the catamaran (and about 2 hours too late...live and learn!) but by the time we had almost reached St. John I felt pretty terrible. Once we got in the water I felt better in minutes and we were able to start our snorkel trip. The beach and water was so clear and pretty. It was Justin's first snorkel trip and he loved it!

Next stop...Tortola! Unfortunately we had a pretty short day in Tortola so we decided not to book a tour and just walk downtown and do a little shopping. Unfortunately I got over-heated from walking around and had to go back to the trip to re-hydrate and cool down. I would have loved to have gone to the beach because it was such a beautiful island - we will just have to go back!

Sailing away from Tortola was so pretty because of all of the little islands you pass by. We just relaxed on the balcony and listed to the music at the bar on deck above us!

The next day we had a sea day to recover from our beach days :) It was formal night 

Belated anniversary celebration!

We spent 2 days in Bermuda (the ship over-nighted there) and the first day just walked around the port in Hamilton. There were some cute little boutique shops, a glass blowing place, an old fort, and of course - pretty scenery.

Cruising in

Beautiful water

Old fort

Live action glass blowing...so neat!

I had french onion soup almost every night at dinner (it was SO good!) and spilled almost every night. This particular night I was trying realllly hard to not spill (because Justin and I were in a competition who could be the cleanest) and at the last minute I hit my plate :( But look at Justin - Mr. Clean (and me rolling my eyes!)!

For our second day in Bermuda we took the ferry to St. George. We would have gone to the beach but the water was a little too cold for us! We talked to a local and she said that Memorial Day is the first beach weekend for the locals - but even then it's too cold for a lot of them to go in the water.

Pretty park

Old church

 

Hunter bear's building!

Such a pretty little town!

After we got back to the boat dad and I walked back to Hamilton and found this bar/beach place that we wished we had found earlier! It looked like a pretty place to have had a drink and put your feet in the water.

That night we finally checked out the Martini bar on the boat. Every time we walked by it in the evening it seemed like it was THE place to be! Justin ordered a martini flight first and the bartender stacked the glasses, made the martinis, and poured them all at once! It was so neat! This was the only time during the cruise I was really sad I couldn't drink because I took a little sip of each martini and they were yummy!

The bar was literally covered in ice

That is one talented bar tender!

Justin is now a martini drinker!

After our 2 days in Bermuda we had 2 sea days to get to New York City. It was on the cooler/rainy side so we stuck to inside activities and the thermal pool. We were able to get a lot of relaxing (and of course eating) done these days! The day we cruised into NYC (we docked in New Jersey) Justin and I woke up early (well normal time for us) and were able to watch us sail under the Verranzano bridge at sunrise which was really neat!

Cruising into NYC at sunrise was one of the coolest things to see! SO pretty!

It took us several hours to get into the city once we got off the ship because there were streets closed in New Jersey because of construction and roads shut down in NYC for a bike race. Once we got to the city and dropped our stuff off at the hotel we ate lunch at Brooklyn Diner and introduced my dad and Justin to the best Reuben sandwiches ever!! Then we went to FAO Schwarz because Justin wanted to buy Baby T his/her first teddy bear (a Steiff) - so sweet! After that we took the subway to Macy's because I wanted to check out the baby department (we couldn't do that in February when we were there because the pregnancy was still under wraps hehe) and bought Baby T a few things :) We had dinner at John's Pizzeria and as always, it was delicious! This pregnant lady was tired after walking around all day so we had an early night. The next morning we woke up and went to Chelsea Market after making a Dunkin Donuts pit stop. My Uncle Bob met us at Chelsea Market and we all walked up High Line and then walked over to Bare Burger in Chelsea for lunch. Yummy, yummy burgers!! After lunch it was finally time for our vacation to come to and end so we went back to our hotel to get our luggage and took the subway out to JFK to catch our flight. 

We had a wonderful vacation and have decided that Celebrity is now our favorite cruise line! Although Disney might give Celebrity a run for it's money next year, time will tell! I think Baby T enjoyed his/her first cruise but I think they will enjoy the one next year better ;)