AdamT's Platinum Valor Review **photos** 6.30.13 to 7.7.13

[brookeq]

Enjoying your review!

[adamt]

Sorry for thedelay here, folks. Work has been klling me this week. Somtimes there are downfalls to taking a week off on a ship:) Look for the next update on Sat.

[doxie2cruise]

Enjoying your review. Looking forward to more of your review.

[cjknox]

Very nice looking forward to the rest!

[Cruiser 2 too]

Great review so far, looking forward to more!

[Katemusical]

Waiting anxiously for your review to continue. Love it!

[Orpheo]

Nice review and pictures..

Waiting for the rest. ;)

[cuted126]

Can't wait to read more!

[adamt]

They say "Better Late Than Never". Just noticed that I let this one slip as work duties kicked up. With a relaxing Easter weekend coming up, let's finish this bad boy off. Up Next.....St. Kitts!

[adamt]

This would be our 2nd time in St. Kitts. We really like the port/shopping area. Just be careful of all of the folks trying to put monkeys on your shoulder for pictures!

 

We had some time to kill before our excursion. We toured the St. Kitts museum at the end of the port. It was quite warm, but very interesting. Gave a great insight to the islands history.

 

Before we went, we decided to hit up The Rum Barrell. A little open air bar in the middle of the port. I can't recall what the drinks were called, but they were STRONG. Packed quite the punch. It's also possible we drank them way too fast due to the heat.

 

We took advantage of their wifi, also. Loud, thumping music, but great fun.

 

 

 

 

 

[adamt]

They actually grated fresh all spice over my drink. It was quite good. Fruity and spicy.

 

We decided to take the train tour. If you've never been to St. Kitts before, I would HIGHLY recommend this tour. The train literally takes you around the entire island. There are air-conditioned inside carts that you can go upstairs to open air. There are also bathrooms on every cart.

 

During our tour the train actually broke down, leaving us stranded for probably 1.5hrs. It was pretty heavenly. There was a great breeze and it felt wonderful. The upside to all of this....they serve FREE drinks throughout the entire tour. They poured great pina coladas. My father in law and myself made sure to indulge (and tip) often. We found that the pours got a little stronger the more we went on. There were maybe 15 people on our car, so it was nowhere near full. Plenty of room, and just the right amount of folks to make plenty of friends. I suppose the social lubrication helped a bit, but we met a lot of great people on this tour.

 

 

 

 

 

[adamt]

The great thing about the train tour is that you get an overview of the WHOLE island. You pass schools in session, go through cities, travel through farming communities..you get to actually see citizens doing their every day activities. It was quite interesting to see folks making their living on this island. Great people.

 

 

 

St. Kitts was previously known for producing sugar. The landscape is littered with these types of structuers. These chimneys indicate old plantations that are no longer there. They're everywhere.

 

 

 

[adamt]

This was actually a school that was growing some of their own food to the side of the building. There were kids everywhere.

 

 

this was during the train breakdown. that's me in the blue shirt, waiting in line for another beverage. that's my father in law....napping. The alcohol, coupled with the cool breeze, coupled by the broken down train made for perfect napping conditions.

 

 

 

[adamt]

Up Next: St. Martin

[adamt]

St. Marteen (Martin) is one of my wife's favorite stops for one very important reason.....SHOPPING.

 

I would highly recommend getting off of the boat, and buying a water taxi for the day. I believe it was 7.00 for all day. St. Martin sits on a cove. With the all day water taxi, you can dock hop from one location to the other to see the most of the island. It's definitely the quickest way to see the MOST in the least amount of time.

 

 

[adamt]

This would be our 3rd trip to SM. I'm a big aviation fan, so this time I really wanted to take a trip to Maho beach to see the planes coming in.

 

For those who are unfamiliar, Maho beach butts right up against the St. Martin Airport runway. When planes come in, they sometimes look like they're just a few feet above your head. It's a really neat experience.

 

The beach was a bit rocky, and the water was a bit rough, but it was blue, warm, and quite the experience. They post the incoming plane schedule outside of the beach bar every day, so you know when to expect the planes coming in.

 

 

 

 

[adamt]

After the family indulged my Maho Beach bucket list item (check), it was then time to yield the day to the ladies. Shopping.....GO.

 

First things first....there is a small booth right outside of the cruise port. they sell fresh coconut smoothies. they were absolutely amazing. They give samples out for you to try....quite refreshing, made with fresh coconut water, and raw sugar.

 

[adamt]

The first time we were every in SM, we were outside the ship waiting on on our excursion group. We noticed hundreds of people (ship employees and cruisers...mostly PuertoRican), coming back to the ship with giant wheels of cheese. It was relatively early, so they had to have rolled out just as soon as they were able.

 

After about the 30th person walked by us (one guy had a collapsible dolly that he was wheeling 8 wheels of cheese back to the ship!) we had to ask someone what the the deal was.

 

We were informed that they sold Smoked Gouda cheese on the island for around 24-30 USD each wheel. These same wheels sold for upwards of around 150.00 to 250.00 in the states. Now we love cheese, and we toyed with the idea of buying a wheel....but we soon realized we were falling victim to mob mentality and that it would take is a full year to eat a wheel of cheese that large:)

 

Still, it was a trip to see all of these folks lining up for CHEESE.

 

 

 

These ladies had 7 bags full of cheese wheels....

 

 

Empty Cheese Boxes....

 

[adamt]

St. Martin Shopping time:

 

 

Dad, outside of the Belgian Chocolate shop

 

 

 

 

Little warm and humid today....

[rtw68]

Discovered your review tonight.

 

Really enjoying it! We go in a week tomorrow and can't wait!! :-)

[adamt]

Thanks RTW. If you've never done this iten before, it's my favorite of my 10 cruises. So much to see! The only downfall is that there's not much downtime. Due to all of the stops, it's go go go!