cra-z-2cruise

Tuesday, 7/23/13

We had decided on Secret Beach, or Pata Prieta, for the morning.

A little adventurous drive, but it was well worth it!

Notice that no one else is on the beach... we had it to ourselves the majority of the morning.

After a swim we went for a little hike...

When we returned, a few other people arrived and we made another beach buddy...

Beautiful pictures!

Thanks scgirlatheart :)

What a wonderful review! We will be going in July and just starting to research the ports. ;)

 

 

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Glad you are enjoying the review. We are planning a return trip next January! :)

We walked down the steps of the sea wall in Esperanza and spent the rest of the afternoon walking along the coast.

After a few hours, we headed back to Bravo Beach.

We took a refreshing dip in the pool, sipped on a tropical drink, and watched the sun set.

Al's Mar Azul is a laid back beach bar with great reasonably-priced food and drinks, friendly staff and patrons, and beautiful views of the sunset. It's a short walk from the hotel.

Sunday is "Taco Night"

Monday, 7/22

We arranged pick up for our rental at 10:00, so we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel, walked along the beach, sat in the gardens, studied our map, and planned out our day.

I have included a couple links with a little info on the island.

Info from The Travel Channel

http://www.travelchannel.com/interes...es-puerto-rico

Beach guide

http://gopuertorico.about.com/od/vie...uesBeaches.htm

We rented a Jeep 4x4 from Maritza's Car Rental for $60/day, plus $5 for an extra driver.

They provided complimentary pick up from your hotel and even drop you off at the air port at the end of the rental.

We drove from Isabel II to Esperanza and walked down the sea wall.

We stopped at Duffy's for a quick lunch and a little refreshment.

The property sits on a small, rocky beach that is home to thousands of sea urchins.

Therefore, swimming was not an option.

However, it was so nice to walk along the beach, looking for shells and sea glass, while enjoying the beautiful skies, especially during sunrise and sunset.

We even made a friend on the first day.

Bravo Beach was just beautiful and Jenna, Carl and the entire staff were wonderful!

They say one picture is worth a thousand words, so...

This was the patio outside our room

There is a W retreat on the island, but it is a bit pricey and we didn't want a resort atmosphere anyway.

Instead, we opted to stay at Bravo Beach Hotel.

I had read great reviews online, but still didn't know exactly what to expect.

Upon arrival, Carl greeted us and gave us the option of a complimentary upgrade to a poolside room! :D

He gave us a tour of the property, recommended places to eat, and pointed out different beaches on the map he provided us.

Our room was big and bright with a beautiful view right outside our patio door!

It had a nice size fridge, an ipod dock, comfy bed, and a flat screen TV with dish network.

The only downside, was the bathroom was a little small and the room could have used a desk or small table.

The property has two pools, complimentary breakfast, beautiful gardens, an honor bar, and free beach equipment to borrow.

The honor bar is essentially a large closet with a fridge full of soft drinks, juices, water, and other mixers. The shelves above house large liquor bottles, plastic cups, and a bunch of can/bottle openers.

You just mark what you take on a clipboard- $1 each.

If anyone can manage a few days pre or post cruise, I highly recommend a visit to Vieques!

I had not even heard of this small island of the coast off Puerto Rico until a few months ago.

I accidentally stumbled upon it while looking for things to do post cruise.

A biobay tour topped the list.

Where is the best one? -Vieques

Where's that?

Google search revealed a small, laid back island with loads of beautiful beaches.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Vieques

After a busy, action packed, port intensive, week long cruise around the Caribbean, I figured laid back was precisely what we needed.

We're in! :D

Had a nice relaxing lunch at the airport then, finally, it was time for our 20 minute flight to Vieques.

The flight was $79/pp each way on Seaborn airlines.

So we were looking forward to a relaxed, laid-back, no pressure kind of experience...

...and that's exactly what we got! :D

As soon as we landed, we were introduced to the concept of "island time"

Up early for sail into Old San Juan.

Thank goodness, photos from my camera are intact! :):)

Couldn't ask for a better finale to our amazing week!

Self assist debarkation was a breeze and we were off the ship and through customs in about 15 minutes.

Walked down to CVS, restocked our sunscreen, and grabbed a cab for the airport.

Next up, part two- Vieques! :D

The big Air France plane came in around 1:30. (Unfortunately, no awesome photo to share) :(

There were plenty of Taxi drivers at the bar, so we headed back to town.

We were able get a nice shot of the Valor on the way back.

Made one last stop at the Guavaberry stand, then headed back on board around 4:00

Enjoyed sail away out on the balcony with a couple slices of pizza.

So we only made it to the dining room a couple time during the week. While the staff were always pleasant, they seemed over worked and constantly rushed. I'm sure the anytime dining had something to do with it.

Our room steward, Arnold, took really good care of us all week. I had asked if I could keep all my towel animals...

Thanks Arnold!

Spent the remainder of the evening out on our balcony with the warm sea breeze and the sound of the ocean.

We arrived at the beach at around 11:45.

We walked down to Sunset Bar and Grill and rented two chairs and an umbrella for $20.

View from our loungers.

We went and checked the surfboard for arrival times.

So, there was one small mishap of the day. Somehow, I managed to delete ALL of the photos off my camera for the entire day! Fortunately DH took these shots and I took a few with my phone.

It wasn't long before our first arrival.

- DH stayed farther back to take his pic, I ran to get more up close and personal.

I have to admit, that as I stood directly between the oncoming plane and the runway, a little lump developed in my throat...

...but how awesome was that!

So we shared a few drink of the day's, watched planes take off and land, enjoyed the beautiful scenery, and periodically cooled off in the spectacular Caribbean waters of St Maarten.

I'd say it was a pretty good afternoon! :D

I woke up early Saturday morning, a little in disbelief that this was our last full day on the cruise!

It's been a week already?

This morning I decided to watch the sunrise from the Serenity area.

This was my third trip to St Maarten, but had not made it over to Maho Beach.

No rush to get off early, so we went and had a nice relaxed breakfast.

Around 10:30 we gathered our stuff and headed downstairs.

What the...?

Is that rain?

It was pouring outside the gangway. Pouring!

We just looked at each other, shrugged and headed off down the pier. ;)

By the time we reached the St Maarten sign the rain had stopped and the sun was shining again.

Feeling adventurous, we decided to walk to town and take the bus to Maho instead of a taxi.

We walked into town to catch the bus on Back Street.

As soon as we reached the corner, her comes the "bus" with a sign that said Maho in the front window.

He stopped and asked if we needed the bus.

Was it really that easy?

Sure was! :)

$2 each.

I may have missed it but not seeing where OP mentions "live bands"...

I was also pleasantly surprised by the live music...

Great review!! Love your pictures!!

I have read several posts about people with monkey's in St. Kitts being too aggressive in trying to use the monkey's for pictures everywhere you go. Did you see any of this? We are booked for a tour with my island tours so hopefully if that is going on will cut down on some of it.

Yes there are many people with monkeys. However, I really wouldn't say they were so much aggressive as deceptive. They will generally approach people who seem curious, offer for them to hold it, then tell them they "owe" an amount of money. I only saw this in the immediate port area.

We arrived back in port in early afternoon but we were a bit gritty from the tour.

We went back on board, showered, and headed back off for a look around.

We did a little shopping, then decided to stop at The Rum Bar for a little refreshment and some free wifi. :)

Plus, rum punch increases DH's patience with me and the wifi

These drinks should really come with a caution label! Tasty but very strong!

Back on board, we grabbed some pizza and listened to some music on deck.

Then headed to our balcony to enjoy sail away...Good-bye St Kitts

Ivan stopped along the trail, climbed a palm tree, and knocked down a coconut for each of us.

Funny, but this coconut water tasted completely different from the one in St Lucia.

I thought this one was better.

Again, Ivan was a fantastic guide, and we had an amazing day with him.

After we got to talking, we figured out that his dad, Ivan Sr, was our guide back in 2011.

I would definitely recommend Spectrum, and Ivan, for a real adventure in St Kitts!

However, I recommend closed-toe shoes as opposed to the flip flops I had on! :)

Ivan gave us a great tour of the old mill, explained the history of the island, pointed out different plants and fruits, and even climbed a tree to get us each a mango.

Breadfruit, one of my new favorites (Thanks to Calabaza)

"Natural" tattoo

Then it was time to get back on the ATV's for some action!

Our Guide for the day was Ivan Jr. He was sooooo much fun!

Their web site says they go as fast as their slowest rider.

What it should say is they go as fast as their fastest rider, then stop and wait for the rest, Lol!

I stayed right on Ivan's tail down a dirt trail.

At one point, he even challenged me to a race!

Of course he won, but what a blast!

We rode through a sugar cane crop, down to the ruins of an old sugar cane mill.

The grounds were absolutely gorgeous!

Wish we would have had a little longer to look around. Also, we were given a demonstration of the Batik process.

St Kitts was the only island we didn't have plans for.

So, when we arrived at the port,

the plan was to get off and figure something out.:eek:

At the port entrance there were many vendors offering tours. One was a rep for an ATV with Spectrum.

My two DS's had done this tour in 2011 and it was a blast. However, the price had gone up significantly so I had dismissed it during planning.

They were offering $75 per person at the port, which was $20 less than the online price. Sold!

A short time later, we are on our way with our two new friends, a mother and daughter celebrating high school graduation.

After a few laps around the training track and we are off!

Our first stop was a tour of Romney Manor and the Batik factory.

Up early again, all alone on deck 10, for the beautiful approach to St Kitts!

Stopped by The Rum Shop for a quick drink, some music, and free wifi. :)

We opted to skip the second formal dinner, so after a quick shower we grabbed some sandwiches from the deli and headed up to Serenity for sail away.

Later we caught another movie out on lido deck.

Another great day!

At the top, we crossed paths with the ship's tour. I think there were approximately 15 people on the tour.

I was really glad we had a small group, and Sammy, to ourselves.

We then hiked up a short distance to feed some fish in a pond.

Sammy led us to an old bunker, where he pulled out a machete and started cutting up fresh fruit for us. We had pineapple, oranges, mango. He also hacked the top off a coconut and we enjoyed coconut water.

While Sammy cleaned up, we were allowed to ride around on the segways.

Then Sammy took some pics for us.

On the way back, Sammy brought us by a small bar on the beach for a short visit.

Sammy was funny, super friendly, and a great guide.

After a little bumpy start, we had an overall great experience with Lucian Style Tours and I would recommend and use them again.

Sammy led the way up a hill, stopping with information along the way.

After everyone was comfortable with their machine, Sammy switched us from turtle to rabbit mode!

Further up a graveled path we go.

At the top we had an amazing view!