First Time Cruising on a Budget! Valor Review: Southern Caribbean Itinerary Feb 15-22

[jaded_reckless]

Loving your review! Love your honesty!

 

My Husband and I have done this itinerary... 3 years ago I believe which would have put us at 26 as well. Great cruise!

 

......And I was extremely quick to remind my older friends when they crossed the threshold of 25 that they were no longer "early 20s" but now considered "MIDDLE TO LATE 20s"......... haha

 

We lucky Torontonians and GTAers are blessed with tons of AMAZING food options, especially international food, and I too was less than impressed with the Wok....

 

-Lauren

[nutocruzing]

Waking up in Barbados we knew we had to make a choice: the Rum Distillery or the Boatyard. We knew we wanted to spend some time on the beach and I even hoped we might be able to swim with the turtles, but I also knew that DBF didn’t need to end up looking any more like a cooked lobster. So we opted for the Boatyard, knowing that they had umbrellas included in the entrance fees. I had read lots of good things about the Boatyard and was confident that we could have a good time there, but we also knew that it wasn’t going to be a super cheap day so we decided to walk there (early in the morning so that the sun wasn’t at its peak yet) rather than paying for a taxi. It honestly probably only saved us $10 or $15 but it was worth it to us, plus DBF likes to be a little adventurous. So, after a breakfast at Rosie’s we headed out into Bridgetown, without so much as a map!

 

DBF was trying to avoid the sun and he walked right into the port building while I awkwardly tried to get both me and the sign in a selfie. I wasn't successful haha

 

Based off of a “you are here” map near the port, we knew the vague direction we needed to walk in. We headed past the taxis and walked along the port until it wasn’t really possible any more. At this point, we happened to pass by a local grocery store and thought it might be our last chance to get decently priced sunscreen. It was still pretty expensive but we were lucky to find some SPF 30 as well as some aloe lotion. Sun protection in hand we headed back out toward Carlisle Bay. Soon we found ourselves in downtown Bridgetown. I didn’t mention it above but the Bridgetown port is really pretty unimpressive, very industrial. The downtown itself is beautiful though!

 

 

We managed to get a little lost at this point but luckily the water is a pretty good landmark and just as we were ready to give up … we found it! It is down a bit of an inconspicuous road but you will know when you get there. We made it there around 9 am even with the half hour walk and luckily there were still loungers left; score!

 

 

The $15 US entrance fee includes a lounger, a drink (beer or a rum based mixed drink, no frozen cocktails!), the use of all facilities (including wifi) and water toys and a cab ride back to the port. The loungers also have umbrellas so we scoped out a place where the umbrellas provided some shade to keep DBF out of direct sunlight. We lathered up in sunscreen and I went to hook up to the wifi and check in at home. Shortly after this I went to grab us our free drinks because we were afraid the tickets (which are attached to the proof of payment bracelets) might fall off in the ocean. Don’t judge our prior to 11am drinks!

 

 

A few tips about the Boatyard:

• The drinks were good; I had a Shark Bite which was a kind of rum punch and it was really good. They also had pretty good deals like 6 beer (Caribbean size around 275ml) for $24, and happy hour (which, at least when we were there, was actually only a half hour around noon) 2 for 1 drinks!

• Wifi is slow and mostly only available near the front by the bar

• The food is purportedly pretty good though we didn’t try it and there was a wait of about 20-30 minutes, more typical of a sit down restaurant

• The bar staff will tell you where you can go to swim with the sea turtles free of charge if you bring your own snorkel equipment (or I suppose you could go without the snorkel equipment but you might not enjoy that as much). More on that later.

• The boatyard mentioned something about not touching the ropes that designate the swimming area due to concern that the algae growing on it could give you a rash. I have no idea whether or not they were just saying this to keep kids away from the boundary line for safety reasons but it’s worth noting just in case!

 

After finishing our drinks we decided to head out to enjoy the ocean water. It was cool but lovely. I’m always surprised how buoyant salt water is. I grew up on the east coast of Canada but the ocean near me was always freezing cold (the Bay of Fundy almost doesn’t change temperature between winter and summer) so I never swam much in the ocean. The water was busy and there were lots of children swinging off the Tarzan rope but it wasn’t too crowded in the designated area.

 

After putting on some more sunscreen and grabbing our sunshielding shirts we decided to make our way in the direction the bar staff had pointed us to find sea turtles. It’s not hard to find. It’s about a ten minute walk down the beach away from the pier. When you get to the area with all the catamarans you’ve made it. The swim out to the area wasn’t too far in distance but the waves really push you in toward shore so it took a while to get out there. I had brought my life vest with me because not being able to touch the bottom freaks me out. DBF however isn’t a particularly strong or experienced swimmer and he had no problem making it to the boats without a vest. Unfortunately once we got there…. There wasn’t much to see… at all. The visibility in the water wasn’t great and we didn’t see a single sea turtle.

 

I should let you know here that I didn’t bring an underwater camera with us. I looked at the prices and they were a little high to rationalize spending given that I have no idea when we’ll get the chance to be back snorkeling. So no underwater pics from me. However there are plenty of other reviews on Cruise Critic that have nice pictures of fish if you want an idea of the snorkeling in various areas.

 

We had decided that we wanted to get back to the ship sometime around 1pm. We didn’t want DBF in the sun (even shaded) for too long and we wanted to take advantage of the paid for food on the ship. The taxi ride back to the port isn’t a bus or a van but rather is some employee’s car. It was fine though, about a 5 minute drive and we were back.

After a quick lunch (I believe I had a burrito and DBF went for the grill, French cooking if I recall) and some down time in our room DBF decided he wanted to try to see if we could get our passports stamped. So we headed to the port again and found signs for immigration. We asked if it would be possible and they told us it was!... well, sort of true. They gave us “souvenir” stamps so mission… sort of accomplished? DBF was less than pleased though I’m sure it’s for legal reasons since we didn’t need to go through customs or immigration ourselves.

 

 

Afterwards we wandered around. The Equinox was also here in Barbados but they docked a little farther away than we were. DBF is in the reserves so when he saw a British Naval vessel in the port he wanted to go check it out. We never really got any more information about exactly what it was doing there but DBF had fun looking around. And we loved just staring at the water. Even in the industrial port the water was so beautiful you wanted to just jump right in!

 

This camera doesn't come close to doing the water justice!

[nutocruzing]

 

Boarding the ship once again we were lucky to catch a steel drum band. The music was beautiful. Back on board I can honestly say that I don’t remember how we passed the time until dinner. Dinner that night was uneventful. No new tablemates appeared. We each ordered sushi as the appetizer because we both LOVE sushi. It was not good sushi. Not that we expected it to be. The rice was just regular rice and it didn’t stay stuck together. The fish was ok but nothing special. If this was someone’s didja I would highly recommend trying sushi again at an actual Japanese restaurant! I also ordered the prosciutto as a second app and it was delicious. For the main I ordered the jerk pork and DBF ordered some sort of beef option. Both were served with the same rice and green beans. For dessert I believe we split a cheese plate and each ordered a WCMC. I think this may have been the night I started adding the butter pecan ice cream to my order. Delish!

 

 

 

 

I forgot to add this picture in earlier. This was by the Washington Dining Room. I thought it was beautiful and enjoyed passing it every night on our way to our MDR

 

For our entertainment this evening we knew there wasn’t going to be comedy show. We decided to try seeing the main Showtime show in the Ivanhoe theatre. It was Marcus Munroe, Rockstar of Jugglers. DBF was very very skeptical but willing to humour me. We both ended up being super glad we went! I hadn’t been sure what to expect but it was very entertaining! Marcus was incredibly funny with an appropriate amount of disguised adult humour for a family show. It wasn’t all juggling, though the juggling itself included flaming torches and knives. There was also a glow in the dark segment. His comedy was really what sold the show though. We genuinely laughed out loud throughout the show. Maybe it was just because our expectations were relatively low going in but we walked away pleased that we had decided to go and feeling that it had made up for the lack of punchliner entertainment on board that night.

 

Up next on the list for the late night entertainment was the Mega Deck Party but guess who was there ready to ruin it? The weather, that’s right, rain again. We were a bit bummed, but not very since we were tired and we knew we might have a long day ahead of us trying to decide how best to get to the Pitons in… St. Lucia! After checking out our new towel animal and reviewing the Fun Times it was time for bed.

 

Not sure what this one was... a dog?

 

Up next: How to get to the Pitons?

[trixiegal]

This a very good cruise report with lots of detail, especially for a first timer! Your itinerary is one of the best I've seen for the Southern Caribbean. I have to keep my eye on that one for 2018 when my youngest will be in college and Mama is free to vacation whenever I want! [emoji4]

[babsee101]

Subscribing. Great review!

[rlmorrow13]

Going on the Valor in October for our son's wedding (but with a different itinerary.) Great review! Subscribing!

[Crusin Karen]

Another tip for NEXT TIME! :D Pack a foldable umbrella in your suitcase to help shield you from the sun! ;)

[nutocruzing]

I had heard so many wonderful things about St. Lucia so my expectations were pretty high. We woke up around 8, packed our beach bag and headed up to the Lido for breakfast. I took a couple of pictures of the port (I think this was probably the most beautiful port of all).

 

 

As mentioned above I had not booked an excursion here in advance. For some reason I thought it would be very easy to find some sort of transportation to the pitons. I was being naïve. All of these islands look like they shouldn’t take long to get around on but that doesn’t take into account the steep hills and the fact that roads are only built where they can be built leading to indirect routes. So, though the pitons appeared not to be too far away, it was actually more of an hour and a half long car ride. If you’re travelling with a group (three or more people) you may want to consider renting a car. I know we ran into others who had done so. I’m not sure about the cost, but it would surely be less than it would cost for three or four people to do a tour. After de-boarding we decided to try to find some tourist information.

 

When we made it out of the port, we spoke to a few of the tour operators around the ticket information stands and they were mostly offering boat tours with beach stops and snorkeling. They were all quoting us around $55 per person. This was a bit more than we wanted to spend but we quickly realized that it was the best we were likely to be able to do without having done the prior research. So I went with a company I had read about in doing research: Papa Boat Tours. The operator, Irwin, was actually the one who sold us on the tour, he’s a great salesman! We decided to take the snorkeling tour whichwas a boat ride along the shore to the pitons including a stop at the marine reserve at Anse Chastanet resort beach followed by a view of the pitons from the water. The return trip included drinks of rum punch or beer on the boat as well as a stop at Marigot Bay before returning to a rock formation used as part of the set in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and finally a stop to swim out in the middle of the ocean. The tour left at 10:30 and we were back just before 4:00 so it was a nice long tour as well.

 

Before leaving for the tour we wandered around the shopping area by the port looking at souvenirs for my aunt who was looking after my cat back in Toronto. We didn’t find anything quite right there but I did manage to find another big bottle of SPF 30 (our first one was close to running out already!) for only about $15 US. This really seems like a good reason to stock up on cheap sunscreen if you’re going to check bags anyways.

I could spend a very long time documenting the trip, what I will say is that the money was absolutely worth it.

 

This photo doesn't do the crab justice, it was a beautiful iridescent silver, look at that water though!

 

The snorkeling was the best I have ever done. There were tons of fish, whole schools of them swimming all around you. Colourful, different kinds of fish, parrot fish, butterflyfish, flounder and huge sea urchins. The reef wasn’t super colourful but it was diverse and expansive and, most importantly, a good depth below the surface; just deep enough that there wasn’t any real risk of scraping yourself on it or getting bashed into it by waves. The tour also provided you with snorkel equipment, life vests and flippers if you needed them at no extra cost.

 

 

The Anse Chastanet beach (I think that's the one) was BEAUTIFUL. I preferred it vastly to Marigot although that beach was nice too. The beach is located just underneath the Jade Mountain resort (look it up, OMG so beautiful!) We didn’t realize how close we were to the pitons but we did spot a set of stairs near the dock up a big hill that we’re pretty sure retrospectively we could have gotten an amazing view of the pitons from. Anse Chastanet was a beauiful black sand beach (watch out for the combo of undertow and waves trying to leave the water! I stopped to take off my flippers and ended up getting pulled back under and scraping my thighs on the hard (glass!) sand). They had a restaurant with food as well as shower and bathroom facilities. We chose to have the tour guides grab us some local grub. It was quite good and it was $15 for a big platter and a drink. We shared it and it easily tided us over until we were back on the boat.

 

 

This is from Marigot Bay. Nice enough but the sand wasn't nearly as nice and it was much busier and louder than the other beach

[nutocruzing]

Here are the pitons in all their glory. Ironically they were just around the corner from the snorkeling area and we could have swam to the edge of the cliff and peered around and seen them while we were at the beach for an hour and a half. Eli told us that the one on the left is actually Petit Piton even though it looks bigger than Gros Piton due to perspective

 

Here are DBF and I at the Pitons. One of the other passenger's took our photo and managed to have our heads totally block the pitons hahaha oh well.

 

NOTE THAT I FORGOT ABOUT BARBADOS: Looking at DBF's shirt above reminded me that the night before we got to Barbados we were lucky enough to have heard from the host in the punchliner that Barbados has a law against wearing camouflage. Thank God we heard that because DBF surely would have worn this shirt on that day instead.

 

The drinks on board the boat were good and plentiful, they didn’t shy away from giving us many, many refills and DBF calculated that by cruise ship standards we almost made back our money in alcohol consumption alone!

The boat ride was fun, there weren’t tons of opportunities for talking though because it was pretty loud and wet! Very wet! I’m sure it depends at least partially on the waves but those of us in the back of the boat pretty much got soaked.

 

Eli, Tara and the boat captain, never caught his name!

 

Our tour guides Eli and Tara were wonderful, hospitable (Eli even jumped into the water at one point to help a struggling fellow passenger - she was fine, just a bad combo of undertow and life jacket problems) and funny people. We also enjoyed the company of our fellow passengers and even made a few friends. It was a beautiful and relaxing day and I really hope to be able to return to St. Lucia in the future.

 

Apparently this rock formation was featured in Pirates of the Caribbean

 

Some of us swimming off the boat. It was fun!

 

After our tour we had a couple drinks with some people we met on the boat and made plans to meet at their table for dinner. This was our only time barely making it back to the ship on time, but we didn’t have to run! There was a huge (but fast moving) line.

 

For dinner that night, we made arrangements to eat with another table. We actually showed up after they had already been seated but the table mates of our tour friends had no problem with us joining. It was nice to chat with some other people for a change! I don’t even remember what we had for dinner that night. Probably because I was pre-occupied with the fact that I had finally made reservations for the Steakhouse for the next night, yippee!

 

I do know that in the dining room that night the waiters danced to Gangnam Style. Our waiter was actually really into it, but as something I haven’t mentioned yet, I wasn’t really a huge fan of the dinner time shows. They felt uncomfortable to me, a lot of the staff seemed uncomfortable and just not that into it. It would have been different perhaps if they all looked like they were enjoying themselves but when they don’t, it just feels forced. I felt bad for them really. And they rarely did more than wave their little napkins in the air. Just my two cents, though I know lots of people really enjoy this tradition on Carnival.

 

After dinner we headed to the Casino to meet one of the girls and the guy she had been seeing on the ship. We waited probably 15 minutes for drinks. This was easily my biggest complaint about the service, the bar service was awful. I think it’s hilarious that people criticize the line for trying to push alcohol on you. In our experience, we were barely served drinks when I wanted them, other than in the Eagle’s lounge or the dining room. After a drink we decided to go see the Showtime show for the evening. Tonight’s show was called, “Far From Over” and it was an 80’s themed song and dance extravaganza. This time it was I who had some trepidations about this show having read some not so flattering things about the Carnival shows. I will say that some people definitely enjoyed it, so obviously this is a subjective opinion but… it just felt very amateur. The singing was ok, good even at times, the dancing was great for some numbers and just alright in others. The on stage fireworks and excessive costume changes felt very overdone. It was the only show we saw that we didn’t really enjoy. That being said there wasn’t much else in the way of entertainment going on that night so I’m not sure I would say we regret having gone. Once the late show was done we decided to head back to our room knowing that we had to meet our tour guide the next morning bright and early at 8:30.

 

Coming up: Saman trees, sugarcane and monkeys, oh my! St. Kitts!

[keansaa1]

I am enjoying your review...can't wait to read more!

[AimeeAndJoel]

I'm loving this review! I was so hoping that I would find a review from someone close to my age. Not that those from older reviewers aren't helpful (they definitely are!!) it's just nice to hear the opinions of someone also in their mid 20s [emoji2]

You're making me so excited for our turn on this itinerary in June [emoji2]

[taylortess]

Subscribing.

[SlotCarKing]

I had the same experience with the comedic juggler. No expectations going in but it was the highlight of the entertainment for us.

[nutocruzing]

I'm loving this review! I was so hoping that I would find a review from someone close to my age. Not that those from older reviewers aren't helpful (they definitely are!!) it's just nice to hear the opinions of someone also in their mid 20s [emoji2]

You're making me so excited for our turn on this itinerary in June [emoji2]

 

Thanks for reading! I definitely understand what you mean. I learned lots from reading the posts on here regardless of posters age, but I thought it might be nice for others in similar situations to myself to hear about the cruise from perspectives other than retired individuals or families!And you should be excited about the itinerary; it's awesome! It's a bit of a let down from here on out because I feel like no other 7 day itinerary compares!

[nutocruzing]

Another tip for NEXT TIME! :D Pack a foldable umbrella in your suitcase to help shield you from the sun! ;)

 

I DID actually bring an umbrella (my grandma always said it's sure to rain if you don't bring an umbrella so I bring one as kind of a good luck charm whenever I travel) and I even think it was packed in the beach bag but this didn't occur to me for some reason. LOL :p

[rmh661983]

Loving your review! While I'm not doing that itinerary, I love hearing about the ship and can't wait till I am on her in July.

[nutocruzing]

St Kitts!

 

So those of you who have read the whole review will remember that St. Kitts was the only island that I had pre-booked a tour for. I knew that we were expected by Royston outside the Pier at 8:30 so we wanted to be sure to get off the ship early. I had also intended to get up early enough to watch the sunrise. I had wanted to do this on multiple days but it really is much more difficult when you're on the lowest deck and you don't have a balcony. Even though we woke up early for vacation most days, usually before 8, getting up before 6:30 was a bit of a struggle and we hadn't done it yet so I was determined when I set an alarm the night before that we would in fact get up on time to see the sunrise. We managed to pull ourselves out of bed by 6:20 or so and quickly get dressed (our bag was still more or less packed from the day before so we grabbed it hoping to avoid having to stop back at our room later and to save some time).

 

I was a bit worried when we got up on deck and it was already light out, but the sun itself was still hanging on the horizon so we didn't completely miss it. The sun hung out behind the clouds for quite some time so it wasn't the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen, but it did end up being a memorable sight to see the sun rise over Nevis as we came into Port. This was also the first time we had gotten up early enough to watch the ship come into port.

 

 

After a drawn out breakfast (since we were up two hours before we needed to meet for the tour), we headed down to deck zero hoping to be among the first off the ship (I was a bit paranoid about not making it to the tour on time and getting left behind). When we arrived on deck one there was a rope across the staircase down to deck 0 indicating that immigration was in process. Slowly, a line started to develop. We had never headed to debark this early, but it took until almost 8:30 and there was quite a line before they took down the rope and let us down. I was starting to freak out a little which was of course silly because there were only two ships in port and it was likely several of the tour guests were likely to be from the Valor as well.

 

At any rate we made it on time. Royston had told us that we would be on a tour with his cousin Ashton, but we ended up on a tour with another friend Sylvester because Ashton ended up not being available. We were thankful though because Sylvester had a tour bus that, unlike Royston's, had windows and A/C as well as a speaker system so that we could hear everything he said. The other passengers included a middle-aged couple from the P&O ship and another retired couple from the Valor, all of whom had names starting with the same first letter, except for one man's wife, which we thought was pretty funny. Needless to say we were the youngest by a couple of decades but the company was pleasant so no complaints here. Just as we were hopping in to the tour bus the rain hit, but with a beautiful result:

 

A double rainbow! (you might not be able to see the second one in this shot, but I promise it was there though faint

 

It was actually decent timing because we were set to be in the car for a while starting with a tour of downtown Basseterre. It was actually pretty interesting touring around the island because there had recently been an election; a pretty close one and it appeared that there was a bit of division on the island over it, with obvious support for the incumbent (who ended up losing) in the rural areas with whole street walls painted in party colours and even some individuals with hair dyed in support. We didn't get tons of information on this but it was interesting to see regardless.

 

After a tour around the city we headed out toward Romney Manor and the nearby plantation ruins. It was interesting to note that although they had stopped sugar cane production on the island about 10 years ago, the islands was absolutely rampant with the stuff; it was literally everywhere, a real testament to invasive species.

 

When we arrived at our first stop (the plantation ruins near Romney Manor) it had stopped raining. The first thing to keep in mind on St. Kitts is that there are monkeys everywhere, but don't be fooled into thinking you can snap a few quick pics for free, most of the moneys (at least those with diapers on them) have owners who are going to want a fee for a photo. We didn't take any photos because the whole practice made me kind of uncomfortable. We walked around the ruins of the plantation/ factory which had been abandoned in the 1930's if I recall correctly and had been originally started quite some time prior (1600's I believe). It was interesting to see and our tour guide did a great job not only of explaining the ruins but also of discussing some local flora with us as well.

 

The chimney of the factory remained in good condition

 

Another picture of the ruins, the area to the right is beneath the chimney and is where the sugar cane was boiled down to make sugar

 

After probably half an hour or so at this location, we got back on the bus to head up to Caribelle Batik and the gardens. Whether you take a tour or not I would highly recommend this stop on St. Kitts, the gardens were beautiful and the batik was beautiful too, as well as decently priced (I kind of expected it to be outrageous given the tourist grab the area is). The estate used to belong to the great-great-great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson before it was sold to the Earl of Romney, hence the name. The highlight of the stop for us was the 400 year old Saman tree, a tree not local to the island, but brought there, likely by some of the natives and not the English. There was a beautiful poem on a sign by the tree about how the tree owns the land or something along those lines.

 

The Saman. You can see where it's limbs have grown all the way down to the earth and back into the air again. It wasn't the largest tree I've ever seen but it was breathtaking nonetheless

 

We also got a quick batik demonstration. In the photo below you can see the woman working away on her piece. Above, there is a demonstration of the many steps it takes depending on how many colours you want to add to your piece.

 

 

Just as we were about to leave, it started to pour! We had to make a run for the van but we were thankful more than once this day for the fortuitous timing of the weather, allowing us to enjoy each stop and waiting to start up again until we were set to be off again.

Edited March 9, 2015 by nutocruzing

[nutocruzing]

I won't review absolutely every stop we made on the tour and I don't remember what the timing of all of them was either. I know we stopped to see volcanic rocks at the edge of a cliff, I know we stopped to see where the Atlantic and Caribbean sea met (not the iconic image though we did see that as well).

 

The next major stop on the trip was the entire reason that I chose to book the island tour with Royston Tours. I had read about Brimstone Hill Fortress and knew that DBF and I would want to spend some time doing historical sight-seeing and felt this would be a perfect opportunity. But knowing that the fee to get in was $10 and not being certain how low of a taxi fee we could find, we were happy to get the stops at the other locations as well as lunch for an all inclusive fee of $45 with Royston. I would sat the tour is definitely worth the money if you want to see the history and contemporary life of the local people. If you want to sit on a beach or snorkel though, this is not the tour for you.

 

Brimstone was impressive. The trip up the hill is not something I would want to make in a rental vehicle, I can tell you that. The tight turns meant that the driver had to honk his horn and hope that whoever was coming in the opposite direction heard and stopped. We did make it up to the top alive thought! Just as the rain was letting up. The driver let us off giving us about 45 minutes to explore. The museum here is modest but informative about the history of the island more generally and the fort specifically. We got some beautiful views of the valley and ocean, and we even saw some wild monkeys (Vervet, I believe). Apparently they are considered to be pests and are known for thieving. We didn't get too close just in case (I have a friend who was attacked by a monkey once so I was particularly nervous about them) though I managed to grab a couple of shots of them running away.

 

 

Once again, just as the weather was getting dicey it was time to go, we made a run for the van once again. This left us with the feeling that it was the right choice to have taken an island tour over a beach day. Next there was a long car ride. We spoke for a while about our experiences on board. I commented that the night before had been quite rough. I hypothesize that this was because we were going full speed but I'm not quite sure. It wasn't list all the way to one side, or broken dishes rough but you could really feel it! I also commented on something I forgot to mentioned above about our cabin. Although we didn't hear any noise from the other passengers, we definitely heard a crew party one night. We know it was the crew party because we were too far away from the other passenger decks and had heard the music that was playing as we had walked around ourselves prior to coming to bed. It wasn't very loud, but the noise sort of came in through the vents and echoed a bit so it was annoying to try to sleep through. We also discussed elegant nights and apparently P&O take theirs quite seriously! DBF and I may have to look more into that line!

 

I think I actually ended up having a bit of a nap at this point. We stopped along the side of the road at one point where Sylvester picked up some local BBQ for lunch (he also had a cooler full of drinks and had been providing us with soda, water and beer throughout the trip). He then took us to a secluded beach spot with a picnic table to eat lunch. It was BBQ chicken and a roll. Very, very good, but a bit messy since there were no utensils. We managed alright and then headed back up the hill where we stopped to get an iconic picture at Timothy Hill.

 

Such a beautiful image - the Atlantic to the left, Caribbean on the right

 

It wasn't too long before we got back into town and to the port. All in all, I would highly recommend the tour for cost efficiency if nothing else. It was a unique experience as there was definitely quite a bit more visible poverty than on the other islands but you really got to feel like you experienced the whole island in a way that wasn't glossed over for tourists.

 

Back on the ship I knew that today was the day I wanted to try out the water slide. Since I was already wearing my bathing suit we went straight up to the deck where you access the slide. A little bashful, I got the attention of the attendant and asked if I could go down, he laughed probably as I was the only adult I had seen near the slide the whole time, but I went for it. It was fun, and actually faster than I thought it would be!

 

This shot was taken shortly after a much less flattering shot where my legs were straight up in the air from hitting the water at the bottom

 

We headed back out to the port for a while because DBF wanted to see if we could get our passports stamped again (we never did manage to track down immigration). We wandered around the city instead in search of some place DBF could purchase something small so he could get some local currency (the east Caribbean dollar) as he collects money on his international travels. We ended up in a local grocery store that was packed at the end of the day on a friday and we were definitely the only tourists which got us a few strange looks, especially after DBF requested change in local currency. We stopped by a couple of the churches in Basseterre as DBF finds the architecture of old churches interesting (side note, there were TONS of churches on this island, it felt like every other thing that the tour guide pointed out was a 250 year old church!).

 

We didn't wait until the boarding time of 5:30 to get back on the ship because we had reservations for the steakhouse that night at 6:30. I was pretty excited as I had heard good things about the steakhouses on these ships but I think DBF was a bit apprehensive knowing he wasn't a huge fan of the food even in the MDR and worrying about paying $35 US for a meal he wouldn't like. It was a great experience overall. We both agree that the value was actually quite good because the food was, in our opinion, significantly better than the rest of the food on the ship and the total cost for three courses was significantly less than we would have spent at a steakhouse on land for the same amount of food.

 

We ordered a bottle of wine to go along with dinner as well. The wait staff were professional and they even do this little display where they bring out the cuts of meat to show you exactly what you will be ordering. I didn't take photos because it didn't feel like a very classy thing to do but I can tell you what we ordered. I was actually a little bit intimidated because they don't make it quite clear what is included and what is not. For example, I wasn't sure if you were only allowed to order salad as an appetizer or a main, or whether you could order one as a side (you can, DBF tried it at no extra cost). I ordered a jumbo shrimp cocktail for my apetizer, the surf and turf for my main with a side of potatoes (there were multiple side options, DBF also ordered a second side at no added cost) and the chocolate sampler for dessert. DBF ordered lobester bisque for his appetizer, the surf and turf along with the potatoes (they were wasabi flavoured which was surprisingly yummy!) and mushrroms, and cheesecake for dessert. In advance of the appetixer we were brought amuse bouches courtesy of the chef. They were alright, though not as fabulous as the rest of the food. I got a kind of pea soup and DBF had what he called a glorified tater tot lol. Everything was fabulous. In particular we LOVED the tiramisu which came as part of the chocolate sampler. It was much, much better than that which was offered in the MDR, as was the cheese cake.

 

After dinner it was only 8:30. We had planned to go to the comedy show but it was a bit early still so we headed back to the room. The intention had been to have a short nap but we ended up sleeping through the show and decided just to call it a night; talk about a food coma!

 

I think this one was a gorilla

[nutocruzing]

St. Maarten

 

We didn't really have anything planned for St. Maarten. I was hoping we could find somewhere to snorkel, or find a way to get to Maho beach to see the jets come in. I knew the jumbo jets mostly come in later in the day so we weren't in a huge hurry to get there. We lazed about in the cabin even though we got plenty of sleep due to dozing off at 8:30 the night before. After breakfast we decided to head to the port and take a look around Philipsburg.

 

View of the port from, I believe, the Lido deck. The water here was almost as beautiful as Barbados and for once this entire trip there did not appear to be any risk of rain

 

I remembered from reading reviews on here that many people are already feeling bittersweet about their last day on board, but I had myself deluded into thinking I wasn't concerned about it because we still technically had a full day left of vacation in San Juan. Upon exiting the ship we noticed that there were five ships (including a couple of masted ships) in port that day. It didn't really feel as busy as you would expect with that many ships however. We walked towards a large tourist targeted map where a man was giving out basic tourist information. We noticed a water taxi to downtown but since I had been under the impression that the city wasn't that far away we opted to walk. The fare was $5 per direction or $7 for the day. For some people, if you're planning on going back and forth throughout the day for example, it might be worth it but it just seemed unnecessary to us. Because it was relatively far away from the exit, I feel like lots of people probably had no idea there was any other way to get to the city. Don't let this fool you.

 

 

Although it was nice having nothing but blue sky, we quickly felt quite overheated. We wandered down along the boardwalk. There is a beach right there in downtown Philipsburg but the sand was gravel-like and it seemed pretty well abandoned despite the five ships in port. There were also lots of water sport activities for rent e.g. jet skiis, and also segways. We walked past lots of restaurants and vendors selling lounge-chair and drink combos that weren't outrageously priced but as a general rule I was left with the impression that things were quite expensive in St. Maarten. We were running low on cash and DBF wanted to avoid taking out any more if we could. This left us in a bit of a pickle. Once we were done sightseeing in the city itself, we needed to decide what to do with our day. However, the unionized taxi system meant that it was pretty much a minimum of $20 per direction to get anywhere on the island by taxi. While we may have been able to walk to some beaches (other than the downtown beach we had no interest in), it was honestly just too hot. I was sweating buckets and starting to feel a little ill already and it was barely 10am. With the amount of cash we had left there would barely be enough for the taxi fare to Maho (or any other beach for that matter) without a tip and we weren't sure to what degree tipping was expected. We hemmed and hawed about what to do, but ultimately determined that we didn't want to risk not having enough cash and decided to head back to the ship.

 

The beach on the boardwalk. You can see how this would be a let down after the beautiful serene beaches in St. Lucia. I'm sure St. Maarten has beautiful beaches too, but $40 just to go to the beach was a bit much for us to swallow to be honest. It may have been a different story if it weren't so late in the cruise.

 

We stopped along the way to grab a guavaberry colada since I had heard so much about them and it really hit the spot!

 

Back on board, we went to our room, put on sun suits and sunscreen and headed up to the serenity deck to do some reading and relaxation. It was all but entirely abandoned on this beautiful day so we found a couch in the shade and I quickly fell asleep. Feeling much better after re-hydrating and getting some shut-eye, we headed into the lido restaurant for some lunch.

 

Relaxing on the serenity deck

 

We tried the mongolian wok on this day and DBF couldn't even finish his, he found it to be so unpalatable. Instead, he headed off in search of a burrito while I eyed the chocolate buffet. I had heard about this phenomenon but for some reason had myself convinced that it was only offered on the newer ships; not so! And it was everything I dreamed it would be. There were cakes, marshmallows, nuts, chocolate fountains, deep fried goodies and dessert sushi all across the lido grill. They were all about 100 times better than any other buffet dessert we had the entire trip long. I was barely able to contain myself to just a few options. I tried the marshmallows, the pudding (delicious, almost like a ganache) the chocolate truffle cake (omg) and the coocnut cream cake. Later DBF had some chocolate cheesecake that was even better than the steakhouse cheesecake.

 

[nutocruzing]

I don't remember what kept us busy all afternoon. I know I got some studying done. We had planned to attempt to go out to the port again, if only to find free wifi somewhere, but this (it turns out to be fortuitously) didn't happen. DBF brought some chocolate cake back to the room to much on while I worked and I think we ended up watching some tv.

 

Around 8:15 we headed up for dinner. Tonight, we opted for the opposite of the previous night and went for less formal food, apart from the appetizer of frog's legs. They do taste, especially in terms of texture, just like chicken... fishy chicken though. I wasn't a huge fan but DBF liked them.

 

The little flippery feet really freaked me out

 

I went for the chicken, bacon macaroni and cheese, and DBF went for the fried chicken. He said that for a good reliable everyday menu item it was an excellent option for picky eaters who couldn't find anything else on the menu they were interested in.

 

It was pretty good but DBF makes excellent homemade macaroni and it wasn't nearly as good as his. That was my biggest disappointment with the food, maybe I'm just spoiled but we felt like the food we eat at home was usually better than even the MDR food and when I'm eating out like at a restaurant I would like the food to be better than what I could have made at home. DBF did give full marks for presentation though.

 

 

After dinner we had once again planned to go to the comedy show but I actually ended up being pretty sure that I had gotten mild heat stroke earlier in the day and I wasn't feeling so well so we ended up making it an early night once again. It was a bit of a mediocre note to end the cruise on, but maybe 7 days was a bit long for a first time cruise?

 

Up next: San Juan, my top 10 list and my overall opinion on the cruise!

[bitzy]

Subscribing!

 

Me too. We're going on the Valor Nov 7, but the ship will be in Port Canaveral then.

[Crusin Karen]

I consider myself a pretty GOOD cook :p but one thing I have never been able to figure out is how to make a great mac and cheese. I love/like the one on CCL. If your DBF would like to share his recipe, I would be more than happy to prepare it and review it lol. :D:D;);) I know he is busy with studies, but just wanted to put the request out there lol. :o

[WiCruiseDreamer]

Can not wait to hear the rest of the review.

 

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[lizardhowson]

Thanks for the info on Valor :)