Cruise Redux

We set sail on the NCL Gem on December 22 for a 9 days cruise. We were set to visit Puerto Rico, St Marteen, St Thomas and the Dominican Republic. On Saturday the 22nd it was a beautiful evening as we sailed under the Verrazano Bridge, on Sunday after Ethan spent the day in kids program and Mom was doing her CME program, Dad had a massage and we dined in the new Brazilian BBQ restaurant. I must say it was great, so much so that Ethan proclaimed " we must eat here again " and we did later in the week. We also ate in the Hibachi and Steakhouse restaurants. Once we got far enough South we started sunning and swimming in the pool. Alas the first port was Puerto Rico and we hadn't thought ahead, and due to it being Christmas Day everything was closed, so we just walked around a bit and looked at architecure which Ethan loves. The next day we did two excursions, this was St Marteen, first a glass sided boat so we could see the waterlife up close, after lunch we went snorkeling and then to a beautiful beach to relax.In St Thomas we went to Magen's Bay, which we where told was voted one of the 10 best beaches in the world and while it was fabulous , 10 best? Maybe. Our last excursion was in the DR where we ferryed to see mangroves and caves with historic picturegraphs, also an Ethan favorite. Saturday and Sunday were onboard days, Dad hit the spa again for another massage and a facial, as did Mom.Sunday we hit some choppy sea and lucky for us our stateroom was high enough that we din't get sick as many below did.As Ethan gets older and enjoys new food and adventure the cruise gets better, we love NCL as we don't have to dress for dinner even in the specialty restaurants, you can if you want but jeans and a collared shirt works
We love crusing so much we put a downpayment on our next one. Back to normal life and the countdown begins to June and our first adventure to Europe , England / Scotland