St. Croix, USVI

Celebrity Summit - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

OUR FIRST port of call after departing San Juan was nearby St. Croix, USVI. The sail was just over 100 miles from the Port of Old San Juan to Frederiksted, at the western end of St. Croix. To date, this was our one and only stop in St. Croix. It was rather different from any stop we have made in the eastern Caribbean, but we had a nice, relaxing day there. At times, it felt like we were the only ones in the port. We docked there on a Sunday morning, and the whole port was very quiet. The port and town of Frederiksted felt like "old" Caribbean ports were probably like. No EFFY, or name brand designer shops and no brand new construction My own impression is that St. Croix is not one of the very popular and heavily visited cruise stops

St. Patrick Catholic Church - Frederiksted, St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THERE WERE a lot of very old, weathered buildings that house shops, bars and restaurants. On this particular Sunday morning, things were pretty dead. Frederiksted has a population of only about 1,000 people, so I am sure the tourism is what makes it crowded. I think we were the only ship in the port that morning, At just over 2,000 passengers, the area seemed to absorb those that got off the ship rather easily.

Main Street - Frederiksted - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

ST. CROIX is the largest of the USVI chain, and yet is a relatively small island, with the primary port in Christianstadt (though the cruise ships do not come in there). The entire island has a population somewhere around 40,000. There are about 3,000 between the town and suburban part of Christanstadt. There was very little going on in the cruise port area. Because we had not made major plans for excursions, we stayed right in Frederiksted. It looks like we might have found more to do over in Christianstadt, but we didn't know about it, and to get there would have required transportation. We didn't even see any taxis out and about the day we were there.

Main Street - Frederisted - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

EVEN THOUGH clearly exposed and beaten by the Caribbean weather, the old buildings had a beauty all of their own (in it felt like each of them had soul, character, and pride that it was still standing, though sadly a couple major hurricanes came through in the years after we visited and did catastrophic damage to much of the town).

Frederiksted - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

ON THE main street, there were signs (mostly in similar buildings to what I have published here) for dentists, lawyers, and there is even a USVI Supreme Court Building. I found the sign on the pink restaurant humorous. Here we were. But they didn't appear to be open for business.

One of few bars and restaurants in the downtown Frederiksted area
Frederiksted, St. Croix - USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THERE ARE said to be a number of nice, sandy beaches around the island, and it looks like it might be place for adult families to do an extended vacation in a very laid back atmosphere. Certainly not a "wild party" destination.

Frederiksted Cemetery - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

WE WALKED around the main street and up a back street to a beautiful cemetery with a very "caribbean" scheme of bright colors and burial tombs, and then back down past a large, Catholic church (St. Patrick's) that was in full Sunday ceremony. We stopped outside the doors and listened to the music for a bit.

Frederiksted Cemetery - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

BRIGHT COLORS is a recurring theme for me photographically, and it is my good fortune that it is also a recurring theme throughout the Caribbean. St. Croix is no exception as you can see from the cemetery, and some of the brightly painted buildings in the town. So you can see where my eye was immediately attracted to this building (the Oscar E. Henry Customs House), with a large "square" or plaza in front of it and more colorful buildings off in the background.

Oscar E. Henry Danish Customs House - Frederiksted - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

BUILT IN the 1800's the Oscar E. Henry Danish Customs house is just a block off the cruise pier and within a stone's throw to the 1700's Fort Frederik. Back in the 1800's, St. Croix was a Danish colony and these houses (this one and a larger and grander one over at the port in Christianstadt - which is not a national historic place) were the first points of entry, where customs duties were collected and administered. The building is owned by the USVI government, and though there have been plans in the miss for several years to create restaurants, shops and a museum there, sadly the building remains unused - save a fresh coat of paint shortly before we visited.

Old Canons on Fort Frederik - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

BACK AT the pier, we passed nearby the historic, 1700's, Danish Fort Frederick, at the harbor, now a National Historic Landmark, before re-boarding our ship. The promenade in front of the fort and along the waterfront yields up one of those sandy beaches off in the distance.

Frederiksted Beach - Fort Frederik in trhe foreground
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

The Caribbean Again (This time from San Juan)

San Juan secondary cruise port - San Juan, Puerto Rico
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

FOLLOWING WHAT perhaps could be characterized as a disastrous 2013 cruising season (we don't think so), 2014 was short and mostly uneventful. But we certainly hadn't soured on cruising. Indeed we were all in. Our single cruise this year, was a short, 7-day Caribbean Cruise. By February, 2014, we had 4 cruises under our belt, including the adventure in Europe. My good friend (and partner in our law firm) and I got talking about wanting to go somewhere warm during the dead of winter. In Saginaw, Michigan, where we lived, Mid-January to about mid-March was the poster child for SAD ("seasonal affective disorder). It was grey (partly from the skies and partly from the dirty, accumulated snow and slush), cold, damp and dark. It had been some years since Bob had been on a cruise ship, and he could tell by my enthusiasm that it was time for him to get on board again.

NCL Norwegian Sun Princess from our Celebrity Summit deck - San Juan, Puerto Rico
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

HE HAD cruised before on Carnival and on Celebrity. We agreed that any choice there would be a no-brainer. Three of our first four cruises had been on Princesses, but I had really enjoyed our Celebrity Cruise and wanted to do that again. We found a nice, 10-day cruise that originated out of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and visited 5 Caribbean islands, all in a 7-day cruise.

we expected (and experienced) a relaxing, enjoyable week in the sun!

WE HAD a group of guys that belonged to a local social club and the couples occasionally would go out to dinner together. Jon and Peg were also neighbors and our boys went to school together. Another "Bob" (you may find by reading here that I have a lot of "Bob" friends) - and his wife heard about it and decided to join us. Jon and Peg signed on soon afterward. Then another friend Mark decided he and his wife needed some relief from the "winter doldrums" Suddenly, we were 5 couples. It worked well. This was the first cruise since very early on where we would actually have friends along. It was a fun group who all got along well, so we expected (and experienced) a relaxing, enjoyable week in the sun!

Our motley crew (sans the photographer - moi') - Caribbean Celebrity Summit Cruise - 2014
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

HAVING STOPPED in San Juan on the "O'Brien" cruise the year before, I was looking forward again to doing some exploring around Old San Juan. What I wasn't aware of was that there are actually 2 cruise ports in San Juan. The one we have stopped at now multiple times is on the north side of San Juan Bay, adjacent to the two forts and located in the lee (south) of the peninsula where Old San Juan is located. The new and second port is diagonally across the bay, further to the southeast, near an industrial channel at the end of the bay, and immediately adjacent to the airport. It was midafternoon by the time we landed, sorted transportation to the cruise port, and got boarded. We had started out the day in Saginaw early that morning and had a long day of travel. Though less than a mile apart as the crow flies, by vehicle it is closer to 4 miles - through the city. With little or no planning or organization, the transportation to the port has been a bit of a circus, and I could just image that group trying to organize it self for the short trip to Old San Juan and back for just a couple hours before our sail-away. I had to laugh, though. There is another Senior Frogs right on the edge of the second cruise terminal. It looks like a military building (hangar maybe)? Already on board, with a bar right at hand, we didn't even make the walk. And in spite of it being not a very "pretty" cruise port, I actually got some nice photos of Norwegian Cruise Lines ship coming in. This is the only time (so far) that we have ever done a Caribbean sailing out of anywhere but Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Tampa (in just under a month, we will be adding another Caribbean departure port: Cape Canaveral).

We continued to give a decided edge to Celebrity for its food 

I WAS still new to Celebrity (this would be only our second cruise with them) and didn't really know the ships very well. When we sailed on the Reflection in 2012, it was the newest of the Celebrity fleet. Our ship on this cruise would be the older, Celebrity Summit. At that time Celebrity had two "classes" (it really isn't a quality descriptor, more of a size and design thing) of ships: The Millenium Class and the newer "Solstice Class." At that time, we were still 4 years away from the introduction of Celebrity's newest (and currently "top") class. There were only 4 ships in the Millenium Class, and they essentially replaced a few of the cruise line's aging vessels. The "Millenium" was the first and was launched in 2000, with the Infinity, the Summit, and finally The Constellation (which became Celebrity's "flagship" until the launching the Celebrity Edge in 2018, the first of the currently newest: "Edge Class."

Celebrity Summit - Caribbean - 2014
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

MILLENIUM CLASS ships were older and a bit smaller, but certainly not inferior. In my view, they were every bit the equivalent of the smaller Princess ships we sailed on. Over time, it seemed to me that Celebrity kind of pulled away from the traditional mainstream cruise ships that Princess and HAL continued to float. They all modernized as the rolled new ships and classes out. And in some ways, Princess out-teched Celebrity (in particular with their medallion system). But Celebrity began to have a more modern edge (beginning with the Solstice class and then really moving forward with the Edge class ships). We have not been on a Millenium class ship since. But in November of this year (2025) we again board the Summit for a short Bahamas cruise.

Our "rockstar" Bar Staff on the Sunset Deck of Celebrity Summit
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THE SUMMIT was still mostly "old school," but still very clean. They did not have the top deck aft bar that would become a centerpiece social gathering spot, especially in the afternoons, on the newer class ships. Instead the bar on the back was kind of an extension of the buffet. But it was still a "happening" place and we spent a fair amount of our onboard time back there. Their dining room was traditional, at that time, still mainly by set time and assigned table. The 10 of us, of course, had our own table. We continued to give a decided edge to Celebrity for its food (in fact, the "latest, greatest" Royal Princess, I thought the food was mediocre and certainly the worst we had had on any cruise so far). The buffet was also very good. That was back in the days when Celebrity would bring out sushi rolls in the mid-afternoon and we started a daily habit of a plate of sushi out on the back deck with our sunset cocktails. Sadly, they figured out how to monetize sushi a few years later and have discontinued the afternoon buffet sushi (indeed, the current version of the Summit has a "Sushi on 5," which has become one of Celebrity's most popular "specialty" restaurants - it was nonexistent in 2014). One of the signature venues on Celebrity ships was their Martini Bar. We were first introduced to it on that cruise. It was a very cozy, oblong bar with a unique iced bartop. There was nice seating around the bar, which was situated mid-ship on deck 4. There was also a small dance floor at the bottom of the stairway from the atrium that Celebrity calls "The Grand Foyer." It quickly became our first-stop meetup location just before dinner.

None of us were on this one for heavy cultural experiences

THIS CRUISE came together kind of quickly, and with the size and nature of the group, we didn't really try to set up any excursions. We had - by this time - also learned that in the Caribbean, it was often possible to hook up an island tour on-the-fly, once ashore. None of us were on this one for heavy cultural experiences - we were looking for fun, sun, and good company. There were very few planned excursions.

Celebrity is Listening!

A SHORT time back, I suggested here that one of the things I would like to see is for cruise lines to add more overnight itineraries to their sailings! After our last couple Celebity cruises, when given the opportunity to make suggestions in their surveys, I have seconded this suggestion. I have always lamented that the only real negative I see in our cruises is the lack of time to get to know our ports and spend time there during evening and in some of our cases (we photographers) during the early morning hours. Setting up cruises with more overnight stays in ports (and maybe even multiple nights) seemed to be a winning proposition to me.

WELL, IT appears that they listened! LOL, I am not naive enough to believe they read this blog, or take my personal recommendations into account. What I do think happened is that I was not the only one making this observation. Happily, there must have been many more with the same thinking - and perhaps some in management to boot.

CELEBRITY RELEASED its 2027-2028 sailings and there appears to be an emphasis on more overnight ports and longer port stays (12 hours) in general. Hooray! According to Cruise Critic, Celebrity offerings in 2027-28 will include 60 overnight port stays, and 115 12-hour or longer port calls. This is great news to me, though how it personally effects each of us will no doubt vary. One heartening example was the suggestion that there would be multiple overnight stays during a single cruise in Japan. Will we see others? We will have to check the itineraries to see.

CHECKING MY own booked cruises, I was very pleased to see that a planned Greek Isle Tour (with Turkey and Greece in the mix) has some seemingly very long port stops at almost every port, and includes what I see as a extra long overnight in Istanbul. This is one of the most favorable cruises I have seen in a very long time.

WILL OTHER cruise lines come aboard with this new trend? Time will tell, as it will no doubt be governed by their own market research and how well received the Celebrity program is.

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THE PREVIOUS post concluded our pretty eventful 1013 cruising year. We would ultimately get home after some continuing adventures, and regroup. Princess did everything they promised, and we certainly didn't leave that experience with any kind of bad taste in our mouth. Indeed, in spite of our work commitments and being somewhat new to cruising, we jumped right back in, with cruises - this time with a group of long-time friends in Saginaw, where we lived, for winter "getaway" cruises in 2014 and 2015, and then with "both proverbial feet" in 2015 (back again on Princess for our "makeup" cruise) in the Mediterranean in 2015. Those stories are coming up in future posts, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I am leaving yet again for 10 days in Vermont to shoot the fall foliage. When I return in mid-October, I promise to get things back on track. Until then . . . . .