Fionna M. D. Samuels
Because we had onboard credit, my mom and I booked all our excursions through Celebrity and took advantage of pre-sailing discounts.
We opted to snorkel as much as possible. My grandma, who still scuba dives at 79, was initially not permitted to buy tickets due to her age. Eventually, though, she was allowed to join us on one snorkeling tour where we saw six sea turtles.
Unfortunately, we had bad luck with the weather throughout our excursions.
After huge ocean swells shortened our first two snorkeling tours, we canceled the third and instead booked an open-air bus tour to a beach with my grandma, her husband, my aunt, and my uncle.
Together, we saw the interior of Tortola before lounging on a white-sand beach in the British Virgin Islands.
I was also glad to have local guides on our final excursion to Santuario De Los Mamiferos, a manatee preserve in the Dominican Republic.
Our driver expertly navigated through dry river beds and swerved around cow herds while his companion pointed out different fruit orchards and talked about life in the countryside.