So Fascinating--Southern Caribbean (plus 3 days in PR) with Kids

[lolavix]

Ontheweb--Sounds like you had a good time in Barbados. The dancing sounds like fun, too!

 

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Back in the van:

 

and we had one more scheduled stop.

 

This looks like a pretty church. We did not stop, however.

 

 

We're getting closer!

 

Our destination was Bathsheba, which is on the Atlantic side of the island.

 

This isn't really an area where you can hang at the beach, but it was very beautiful.

 

[lolavix]

 

The kids and DH were at a nearby stand, where they were tasting coconut meat. DH bought an entire coconut, which we had to eat before we got back on the ship! I didn't think to get any photos, because I was so enchanted with Bathsheba.

 

Some proof that I was there, but I think the landscape photos are the best!

 

 

 

 

All lined up!

[lolavix]

I just loved this. I know it's similar to an earlier photo.

 

And this one, worth posting again:

 

Done here. We weren't here all that long, but it was so lovely.

 

It was maybe 20-25 minutes back to the port from there. Sanjay dropped us off and we did a little bit of shopping as we walked back to the ship. Got our magnet.

 

Kids + Ship

 

The lines weren't too bad and we were back on soon. We had a bit of a repeat of Monday. DH took the boys to Waterworks and I took a quick shower. When I arrive up on deck, DH had saved me some pizza that he had gotten.

 

Some photos of our departure (plus Serenity):

 

You hear that Barbados is very industrial near the port. Yes!

 

[lolavix]

 

A contrast, with the industrial port and the nice looking hotel or housing in the distance.

 

Fun to watch the cargo.

 

Right about now a few folks sitting on the deck recognized DH as the Hasbro Game Show winner. We chatted with them a bit while we watched the boys at Waterworks.

 

Meanwhile, back at Waterworks:

Both boys are there. DS1 is the furthest left, and you can just see DS2's head poking through the two poles.

 

DS2 is inching his way down to the end.

 

Around 5 or so DS1 and DH went back to the room to start to get ready for dinner. DS2 and I went to the whirlpool for a few minutes:

 

 

Then we were back to the room as well.

[lolavix]

Dinner time!

 

I got the salad, which was a nice change. I also had the Seafood Newburg, which was good. I had some wine that we had brought with dinner, and I think this was the night that I also ordered a raspberry mojito.

 

Tonight was the first night that people were invited to dance when the waiters entertained us.

 

Gangnam Style!

 

DS2 eats this type of thing up. DS1 joined in as well.

 

She was terrific.

 

I had heard so much about Bitter and Blanc that I had to try it. Two thumbs up from DH and I on that one.

Edited September 8, 2016 by lolavix

[lolavix]

Tonight was the Edge juggling show. The boys stayed with us and DD went off to Circle C.

 

 

He had some assistance getting these stilts on.

 

 

He ended the show by juggling this cube.

 

This was an interesting show to watch. The boys, DS2 in particular, really enjoyed it.

 

After the show, the boys went off to Camp Carnival in the conference room for a bit. DH and I looked around at Pixels, where the photos are displayed and we looked at buying a new GoPro camera, since we have a very old model. We ended up not buying it, but probably will in the future.

 

I think this was a pretty quiet night. We retrieved the boys at 10 and settled down. DD came back to the cabin a bit later, and that was our day in Barbados.

 

[marcia014]

Loving keeping up with your review - thanks so much, lolavix!!!

[lolavix]

Marcia01--You are very welcome. Thanks for joining us.

 

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Wow, we've already been on vacation a week. It's Thursday again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Lucia! I had read a lot about St. Lucia and was looking forward to seeing the Pitons and the other things we had planned.

 

We got up and had our regular routine. I took this photo from the dirty window in our cabin, so it's not great.

 

This was the first day we had seen any real threat of rain. We had heard in different places that we had missed the rain or that the rain was coming, but down the road, when I think about this vacation, I probably won't ever think about rain.

[lolavix]

When I was researching what to do on St. Lucia, I came across many popular vendors here on CC. I soon learned that many first-time visitors travel from Castries to Soufriere, and that the ride is anywhere from 1.5-2 hours by car. Alternatively, you can take a boat and make the trip in about 40-45 minutes. The issue is that many of the group tours, including two of the most popular, would have run us around $425 to upwards of $500 for a land-sea combination or entirely sea combination (which isn't even what I wanted, since we did want to see some of the sites). And again, I wanted something private for the five of us.

 

We ended up doing a private tour through "Real Tours of St. Lucia", and I will say that we were quite pleased. They were always so prompt in responding to emails, which I really appreciated during our planning. Our driver was Donny Boy and he was informative and had a lot of information to share. The only drawback is that their tour was entirely on land, but I reasoned that others had done this tour and enjoyed it. This was the only island where I worried a bit about getting back to the ship ontime, but again, I kept telling myself that so many have done this and been fine, and the tour operators don't want to get you back to the port late, either. It also didn't help that we were delayed getting off the ship for a bit. We had plans to meet Donny Boy at 8:30, but we didn't actually meet with him until around 8:55 or so.

 

We met him without any issue once we were off the ship. We proceeded to his van and we were off!

 

 

We had this entire van to ourselves.

 

 

 

Just some street shots.

 

Edited September 9, 2016 by lolavix

[lolavix]

This church looked very pretty as we drove by. I would have liked to have seen the inside. Maybe next time.

 

 

It's everywhere!

 

 

This was a spot that had a great view. It also had a lot of vendors. Donny Boy gave us the option of stopping or not. We wanted to see the view. He told us that they would approach us, but to just be polite and say "no thank you" if we weren't interested. It worked out fine.

 

I loved getting shots of the ship from afar:

 

Very colorful!

[perfect match]

perfect match--I just need to ask...where have you done such terrific snorkeling? My DH in particular would be perfectly content to have an entire vacation of just snorkeling. He said his favorite day of this vacation was St. Thomas, which I would have predicted based on what I knew about the islands and his preferences.

 

Lolavix, I'm sorry to be so long in getting back to you. We have family in town for a visit so my time here on CC has been very limited.

 

I have actualy enjoyed my past snorkeling in St Thomas. Buck island was just very overcrowded and the water so stirred up that there wasn't much to see on the day we were there. We had considered goig to Coki before I booked the sailing trip and after seeing your pictures from there, I'm thinking it might have been a better choice - at least as far as snorkeling is concerned. I did realy enjoy the sailboat we were on, so I guess that's the trade-off.

 

As for my favorite spots, probably Grand Cayman and Cozumel. I was also very pleasantly surprsed by some better than expected snorkeling I found on a recent trip to Ft Lauderdale. I have yet to visit any of the ABC islands, but I'm really looking forward to Bonaire.

 

I am caught up with you now. I thought your day in Barbados looked pretty awesome! The pictures of Bathsheba were breathtaking!

[Stinger-pr]

 

 

 

Wow!! It's incredible the amount of seaweed/sargasso still washing ashore on these beaches. They certainly are ruining some beaches and some great views. There is one particular beach here in Puerto Rico that used to be very frequented in the southeast coast near Yabucoa tha was rendered unusable due to this phenomenon.

 

This was the first day we had seen any real threat of rain. We had heard in different places that we had missed the rain or that the rain was coming, but down the road, when I think about this vacation, I probably won't ever think about rain.

 

Both time I have sailed into St. Lucia it has rained during the early hours but cleared up a lot by 9-10am.

[ontheweb]

Catching up with you. I believe I had mentioned that juggling show. I really enjoyed it, but it was a little too silly for DW. I can see how your young boys would have really loved it.

 

Our day in St. Lucia--DW went on a Princess excursion. She kayaked and swam on Pigeon Island. Meanwhile I went ashore, and checked out what tours were available.

 

When we met up after lunch and I filled her in on tours and costs, we decided we did not want to do anything long as one had to get back to the ship on time. We ended up taking the water ferry ($5 each roundtrip). In town DW found a cathedral that she had found in Fodors. She likes taking church pictures and we spent a lot of time there. We walked around some checking out the vendors. We did try to find some garden that was on the map, but it did not seem to be where it was supposed to be.

 

I'm still waiting for you to try the chocolate melting cake.

Edited September 9, 2016 by ontheweb
changed a shore to ashore

[pghsteelerfan]

Just taking a "Cruise Critic" break for a "cruise fix" and just finished up with your latest section. I have to comment about Barbados...so glad to see another review that includes Bathsheba!!! I've wanted to get there since seeing pictures included Dirkgun's Carnival Victory review from January 2010. We tried on our Valor cruise in 2013 to get a taxi to Bathsheba, but the cost we were quoted was way over our budget for the day. Our backup plan was a close beach, so to get to the beach, we ended up in a taxi/van with others going to the beach at the Barbados Hilton that was waiting to fill. When our driver asked us which beach, we told her to just drop us off with the others. In one of your pictures from the ship in port just before leaving Barbados, you mentioned the "industrial port and the nice looking hotel or housing in the distance"...that's the Barbados Hilton where we spent our day. :)

 

Back to Bathsheba and your pictures - very stunning!!! I'm so happy that the sun decided to make an appearance for you. While we enjoyed the scenery there the day we were there, I was really wishing the sun was out. I hope you plan to get some of your pictures enlarged to display somewhere in your home. Again, I am really enjoying your review.

[sp2]

This is a great review Lolavix - keep it coming! You have a great writing style, beautiful pictures, and just the right amount of detail. Good looking family too! Just wanted to let you know I appreciate your efforts as it must be a lot of work to do these detailed reviews. Looks like a fun itinerary!:)

[lolavix]

Perfect Match--No worries! I think we would love Bonaire, too. I've filed that away, but also noting your recommendations as well for any future trips. Ft. Lauderdale isn't one I would have imagined, but good to know since that is the easiest one. Bathsheba was amazingly beautiful.

 

Stinger-pr--That is really too bad. I still loved seeing the beaches, so I can only imagine how beautiful they must have been and how upsetting it is. And yes, we had only sun by the time we finished with St. Lucia.

 

On the web--Yup, kids loved the show, but I can see how it might not be for everyone. I like taking church photos as well, as you might have guessed by my posting the drive-bys. I didn't even know there was a water ferry in St. Lucia. Your wait is almost over!

 

pghsteelerfan--Dirkgun's review is the reason we made a stop in Bathsheba. I was hooked after reading it. I am surprised at how well the photos turned out, as anything that was on the islands was taken with my water camera and not my DSLR. LOL that I found the Hilton without trying. Thank you for your kind words.

 

Sp2--Thank you so much. I am glad so many are enjoying it. I love doing these reports to relive the trip, and I do go back and read them occasionally. It is a terrific itinerary, and I would highly recommend it to anyone, but especially those who sail mainly for the ports.

 

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A few more of that vantage point near the vendors.

 

 

 

 

And then we moved on.

 

This is the governor's house (or, at least the gate to it):

 

This is a high school. Donny Boy talked a lot about the schools, and said that the Hess family established some of them, and that is why they are green and white.

 

It looks like we were flying by the banana plants, but I don't think we were going that fast.

[lolavix]

I think we were told that the different colored bags help with the ripening process and also let the farmers know when they will be ready for harvesting. I think the blue bags had another month or so to go.

 

 

 

We approached a roadside stand which sold some relishes and the like. Donny Boy asked if we wanted to stop and I said yes because I knew that we could sample the bananas and I had heard that the banana ketchup was good. We wound up buying some of that, some spices which you soak in rum and drink slowly and some banana chips which were surprisingly not sweet...oh, and we got our banana samples, too.

 

 

Keep on truckin'.

 

 

This is a good photo to post tonight. We hit Anse La Ray, which is a fishing village. On Friday nights, they have a fish fry. It's probably going on right now as I type.

[lolavix]

I loved this view.

 

This reminded me of a jigsaw puzzle.

 

So lovely.

 

So many colorful homes.

 

 

[lolavix]

One last view:

 

and from the other side:

 

 

 

Moving on again. We were getting closer to Soufriere!

 

 

 

And here we are in downtown Soufriere:

I have lived in Cambridge, MA, which has some pretty tight squeezes when it comes to driving, but these narrow main streets in the Caribbean made me hold my breath!

[lolavix]

 

 

 

And the Pitons! Finally!!

 

 

 

Not super original, but it had to be done!

 

We finally arrived at our first scheduled stop.

Edited September 9, 2016 by lolavix

[Goldieone1]

Great to read about Puerto Rico and what to do. We will be there for 10 days in December and then flying to Fort Lauderdale to board the Serenade of the Seas for our 12 day cruise to the Southern Caribbean. This will give me plenty of ideas of what to do in PR. Thank you!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[easyboy]

Nice photos.

[lolavix]

Goldieone1--That sounds like a fabulous vacation. Glad I could help.

 

Easyboy--Thank you.

 

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Only time for one post today. Between DS1 having a double header in fall baseball and being busy with arranging reservations for our vacation for next summer (a 2 week land vacation to Alaska--but no cruise this time), the day just got away from me. However, I don't want the day to end with nothing from me.

 

I had read about

 

and Donny Boy confirmed that this would be a good stop to get close to the Pitons, especially since it looked like trying to get to the beach would be a logistical headache for us, with the other stops we wanted to do.

 

We paid our entrance fee (I think it was $35 for all of us) here

 

 

and were immediately immersed in some wonderfully lush plants

and some friends, too.

 

 

This was a shot of the beginning of the path to the Pitons. We had a guide and two other women, probably in their late 20s, joined us as well.

 

I hope you'll join me tomorrow as I continue...

[perfect match]

St Lucia looks beautiful. Another place that is on my list of places I want to visit.

 

I agree with you about the narrow streets in the Caribbean. Our tour van in St Kitts barely fit through some of the streets we were on. I'm sure those streets were not built to accomodate large groups of tourists riding in large vans. We were very glad we were not the ones doing the driving! :eek:

[alpoplup]

Please don't forget about us, I love your review and I feel just like I am there with you.