Sunday, December 20th...

When we left Cape Canaveral this morning, it was 40 degrees!!! Brrr...

as we headed closer to Ft. Lauderdale, the sun warmed temps up to mid 60's....

Once we went through security and check-in procedures, we

made our way up to our "home" for the next week.

The room was amazing...biggest one we've ever had on a ship before.check out the plasma TV....
good sized bath...

Solstice has a Main Restaurant, 5 Casual Dining areas,

4 Specialty Restaurants and 12 Bars & Lounges.

One of several swimming pools....

View taken from elevator...

Deck 15 sports a real lawn....

Monday a day at sea

Spent a very relaxing day doing not much of anything... Breakfast buffet was awesome, then we just wandered around, checking things out. I managed a couple of hours reading time, tackling "The Help"..our book club selection for January.....Time for lunch and then at 2:30 we went to a wine tasting event. Guy enjoyed it more than I did...I tend to stick to only 2 wines that I enjoy (White zin & Reisling) but he is more daring and tastes it all!! It was Formal night so we got all gussied up and had (another) wonderful meal....

Tuesday, December 22nd - Puerto Rico

It was hot when we arrived in San Juan...lower 90's with nary a breeze...

Senor Frog welcomed us, along with the massive traffic jams.

Their streets are so narrow, that it takes forever to get anywhere.

We chose not to sign up for any tours, we had taken a few on previous trips

and decided to just walk around and enjoy on our own.

San Juan was all decked out for Christmas...I still think it
looks strange for a Christmas tree to be sitting there wilting in the sun..

Guy met a friend....

It was soooo hot, it was all we could do to make our way
back to the ship, take a shower and change our sticky clothes.
Also, there were hundreds of pigeons everywhere! Yuk!

If it's Wednesday, it must be St. Maarten

Arrived at St. Maarten bright and early....another gorgeous day...sunny, warm
This port is full of cruise boats today...Emerald Princess, Royal Caribbean Oasis, Carnival Dream (from Pt. Canaveral) and a couple of other foreign ships we were not familiar with...so there were over 14,000 people milling around....

I know that security is very high on cruise ships, but didn't realize they periodically have divers swim underneath the ships to check for whatever.....

Biggest cruise ship on the seas ....massive! too big for us....

This is Philipsburg, St. Maarten...only a 37 square mile island which is shared by 2 different nations, France and the Netherlands. The Southern half (16 sq miles) is ruled by the Dutch and the Northern (21 sq miles) is governed by the French.

French side....a beautiful shopping mall, very modern....

and of course, there was a beautiful Marina there also.

Guy wandered about drooling over the yachts and decided

he'd like this one for Christmas....

Not quite in our price range....but

I did find him one we could afford...

he passed it up.....

After a very, enjoyable tour, we took off our shoes

and enjoyed an adult beverage from our balcony....

still absorbing in the flavors of St. Maarten...

Thursday, December 24th..Christmas Eve

We arrived in Tortola, B.V.I. early this morning, and having signed up for the

"Town & Country" tour, we were off the ship and onto the tour "bus"(?)

by 8AM. This tour was sanctioned by the Cruise Line, but we wondered

why we ever put our blind faith into this excursion. Our "bus" was an open-aired vehicle which added to the excitement!..

Our driver was "wild", screeching around corners, tearing up the side of the mountain at break-neck speeds..(and on the opposite side of the road also)...It was almost like riding on a roller coaster...I spent most of the ride with my hands over my eyes (like that was going to help the situation any)....

The walls along the route had these types of paintings on them,

We stopped at several seedy looking Marinas which were jammed packed with beautiful sailing vessels...the accomodations were not much better and we wondered why such expensive boats would be tied up there, then realizing that St. Thomas was just across the water, probably charging twice the fees that these Marinas do.

Typical scenery on these Islands....they are dirty and poor...
but they do have their gorgeous spots also.

and then around the bend we saw the Cove below...reminded us an awful lot of Megan's Bay in St. Thomas....

on our way down, he came upon an accident that left chills running up and down our spines. A car on the opposite side of the road, came around the bend, lost control and leaped off into a house below...

Back safely on our ship, we got lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon on our balcony watching all the tourists from the other ships visit the Port. Just before we went downstairs to dinner, Guy gave me this beautiful Ruby and Diamond necklace. How lucky I am:)

Another wonderful meal in the dining room...it just goes on and on....How much more can we possibly eat? Another couple of days to go yet.....

Friday, December 25th Christmas Day

We woke up Christmas morning to a beautiful, sunny and very warm day. It got into the 90's but with the warm breeze, it didn't really feel HOT....Because of the strong current and winds, Solstice was late coming into Labadee, Haitti. We brought along gifts from The Thomson's and Julie so we would have something

to open on Christmas morning! This plaque from Jim & Pat was perfect!

Jim gave Guy a neat clock with Patriot emblems on it...I'm sure he wanted
to give one with Giant's info, but after all its Christmas and you have to be nice!!

Julie gave me a beautiful Pandora necklace with birthstones of 3 Grandchildren.

Now I will have to get the stones from other 7...

We weren't really surprised to see Santa aboard...

after all, there were over 500 children sailing with us...

their activities were so well organized, we never realized

there were that many traveling with us!

Glad we brought our binoculars with us...Guy checking out

Haitti to make sure it was safe for us to disembark...

Labadee is a private Island owned and shared with

Royal Caribbean ...thankfully we were all by ourselves

on this day.

There were plenty choices of tours and activities to do,

but we choose to just wander about by ourselves, do a little shopping,

swimming and relaxing....

this is the Zip line ...I wanted to try it out, but Guy wouldn't

go with me....I was wishing Julie were here, she'd be on that

ride in a flash!

It was a beautiful white sandy beach and the water

was like bath water.....

Shopping "Mall"

Local entertainers playing traditional Christmas songs....

It was a great day! we hated to leave the Island and return to the ship....

Our waiter, Xavier

and his assistant, Sasha

I was all watered up for a Turkey Dinner.....it was delicious,

but not the same as our home-cooked feast...

but on the bright side...the clean up was nil...

We thought of our Family and Friends whom

we missed, but all in all it was a very nice Christmas...