Trip Report - Royal Princess 10 Day Eastern Caribbean November 16 - 26, 2016

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Up on the hill in the below pictures you will see some tents and buildings, this is Clarence House, which was the home of Royalty, Naval Commanders, commissioners and Governors. It was originally built in 1783. It was severely damaged in the 1990's due to hurricanes. There had been attempts to restore it but no major progress until a charity commission was set up and fundraising efforts really began. They will use Clarence House for high end events, including weddings, conferences and state functions. Prince Harry was due to officially re-open Clarence House that afternoon.

 

 

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We then headed out of Nelson's Dockyard and did some more touring around the island, it was interesting seeing the different areas. We then headed to a roadside stand where Lawrence got us some black pineapple, it was AMAZING! Nothing like fresh fruit. I didn't get any pictures of this area as while we were enjoying our pineapple a man ran up to the lady yelling and her and she was yelling back, it started to get quite heated, so we quickly made our way back to the van, and I forgot to get any pictures. Lawrence did tell us after that they were arguing over money... what else!

 

 

 

As you can see in the first picture many people live in houses that are not quite done, and they will keep working on them, but some never get finished. A lot of people build their homes with cinder blocks.

 

Next it was time for the beach! There are 365 beaches in Antigua, so it is a little difficult to choose. We ended up at Valley Church Beach, the water was the most beautiful colour, the whole thing was just stunning. There are facilities, including a small restaurant. We rented a couple of chairs and set up our camp, we were there for about 2 hours.

 

 

 

 

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I didn't try any snorkelling here as it was pretty sandy, so I just enjoyed the beautiful water and views. I could have stayed here forever. But all too soon it was time to head back to the ship and say our good-bye's to Lawrence. I really cannot say enough good things about him. If you are heading that way and what to do an Island tour give him a call, he will not disappoint.

 

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Since I had already bought my decoration and Mom didn't really want much, we did not head for the port shops, and instead made our way back to the ship.

 

Royal Princess sure does look big next to this little Viking ship!

 

 

 

We went up to our cabin and took a shower and clean up after our fantastic day. We still had some time before sail away, so we headed up to Horizon Terrace so I could take some pictures of the port and we would play some cards.

 

 

 

 

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I had to take a picture of the back of the Viking Ship as it is registered out of Bergen, Norway and that is where my Great-Grandfather was from.

 

 

 

 

 

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And just like that we were pulling away from Antigua and beginning our journey to our next destination.

 

 

 

 

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The ship n the below picture is a Frigate from the British Navy and was actually Prince Harry's accommodations during his tour of the Caribbean and wouldn't be the last time we see it.

 

 

Unfortunately, I have no more pictures from this day, and I am pretty bad at taking notes, so I am not exactly sure what we did this night. But, I will say that we definitely did go to the main dining room at one point for dinner, since I did that every night.

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Day 8 (November 21, 2016) - Barbados

 

I could not wait for this day, I was so excited for our time in Barbados, I had searched and searched to find what to do on this day. I knew going into this day that I really wanted to see Bathsheba, and I also really wanted to go to the beach. It was going to be tough to get them both done, as Bathsheba was on the Atlantic side of the island and the beaches were closer to port. I also really wanted to visit Rockly Beach, it just looked so beautiful. But we didn’t make it there, so now I have to go back!

We arrived in port at 9:45, so we were able to have a little more leisurely morning then usual. I would be carrying a lot of gear this day, as we were doing 2 different activities and we really did not want to come back to the ship in between.

Once we were cleared to get off of the ship, we started to make our way to the port shop… oh my goodness, it was a long walk, I am pretty sure that we were at the furthest berth today, it took us a while, but we made it to the gathering spot for ship tours. I did drag mom along on this tour, as it was definitely more for me then for her, but it still gave us a tour of the island. I was pretty excited to book this excursion when I saw it, it was right up my alley, it was the Guided Photography Tour, Bathsheba & Scenic Drive. What more could I ask for! And mom agreed to come along for the ride. Our guide for the day was Ronnie Carrington, he is a local Barbados photographer, he does a great job leading this tour. We found our way on to the tour bus, and there we sat. The port was a mess today! The local union had gone on strike and blocked up the port area, it probably took us a good 30 minutes to get out of there.

Our first stop was at the entrance to a plantation, so we could photograph the perfect lines of the royal palms. We were told that you could always tell the entrance to a plantation because they were always lined with the royal palms as it was a symbol of wealth.

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Next few photos were taken while en route to our next location, so of course taken through a window in a moving vehicle, so not the best, but I still liked them.

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Our next stop was the small village of Sugar Hill (which is significant to us, as that is the road you need to take to get to our farm in Saskatchewan)! Here we would stop to take a look at a Chattel House. These are small wooden house that working class people would occupy, back in the plantation days they would live in these houses as they were designed to move from one property to the next as needed. They all begin with a single 2 room unit, and then over time additions are built on.

These homes are also very symmetrical, with the door in the centre flanked by a window (equally spaced) on each side.

The woman who owns this home peeked at us through her window. Ronnie stops for most of his tours here and he will take a small collection of money and give it to the lady for allowing us to photograph her home. Also there were quite a few people on this tour, so it took a lot of patience for me to get photos without people on them, quite often I would wait until everyone else was done then I could have the shot without people. I would often wander around and take photos of other things in the area that caught my eye.

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Now we would start making our way to the eastern coast of Barbados, here are some more pictures on the way.

 

 

 

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Our next stop was in the Scotland District, it was named this as the rolling hills reminded them of Scotland. From here Ronnie told us this was the cleanest air as there was nothing between us and Africa.

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I was playing around with settings on the above shot. Below is some more evidence of me wandering off.

 

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Next we headed to a small beach area, unfortunately I cannot recall the name. The east coast of Barbados is not really just for swimming, it is mostly for surfers. This little area did have washroom facilities so that was a nice break for us.

Across the road I spotted quite a few school children waiting on the wall,

I assumed they were waiting for the bus, but I am not sure, as it was close to noon.

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Next stop was a look out and our first view of the beautiful rock formations that run along this section of the east cost.

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I know there are lots of pictures, but the area is just amazing! Time to get back in the bus and head to the place I could not wait to see, Bathsheba.

We finally made it! There is a beautiful park that leads to the beach and the ocean and on the other side of the road and a small bar. I headed toward the beach and mom made her way to the bar, she was picking up the $2 rum punches for us. I couldn’t wait to get down to the beach and see this area, it did not disappoint.

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The shadows were amazing on this beach so I played around with them some. Once I had the photographs I wanted I headed across the road so I could get my rum punch, it was so good. This is the moment that Mom would kick herself. They were selling bottles of Mount Guay rum for about $10, she decided not to buy one, but once she got home she decided to go and look for it at the local liquor store, and she could have purchased a bottle there for about $150.00. So the lesson here is buy your rum in the Caribbean countries! She did however purchase a copy of Ronnie’s book, it has some of his photography in it and some different quotes from him.

This was the end of our tour and it was time to make our way back to the port. Because we had been delayed leaving the port and he was doing this tour again in the afternoon, we flew back to port. I tried to take some pictures on the way back, but it was just impossible at the speed we were going. The tour was about 3.5 hours.

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Next was our beach time. I just felt like we didn’t have the time to make it to Rockley beach so after reading some reviews online and talking to a couple at dinner the night before we decided to head to the Boatyard. The cost to get in to the Boatyard was $20pp, but it was one of the best values yet, for $20 you got a chair and umbrella, a drink, use of the dock, which you could swing off of, toys in the water, a short snorkelling trip to swim with a turtle and the return ride to the ship! Really it didn’t get better then that. So once we got off of the bus from our tour we headed straight for a taxi and made our way to Boatyard. It is only a 10 minute ride to get there.

I did manage to snag one picture on the way.

We paid our entrance fee and headed in, the advised that if we wanted to go on the snorkelling trip we should sign up now to ensure we could take part. I did sign up, mom passed this activity up. We found our spot and put our stuff down it was time to get in the water, I am not sure, I have ever really seen water this colour ever before.

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It was so beautiful and clear.

I had some fun taking some pictures under the pier.

After a little swim, I was starving. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so it was time to grab something from the kitchen here at the boatyard. I didn’t take pictures of the menu or our meal, but we decided to try a local dish, we had flying fish fingers. They included fries and they were delicious, we would have them again.

Then my name was called to go up and get prep’d for our snorkel trip. I had brought along my own gear so the only thing I borrowed from them was a snorkel vest. I would be heading out with a family of 5.

This is the boat they take you out on.

You have to climb down these steps to get on the boat, I love the water drops look in this picture.

A photo along the way.

I obviously had my camera with me and I did take some pictures of the turtles that we found, but they are so bad that I am not going to share them anywhere. I am still getting used to this new Olympus camera, and there were so many people around, that the pictures are so bad. This was not my first time snorkelling with turtles either. I had swam with them in Akumal, Mexico. We took a taxi there and I snorkelled from the shore, it was amazing, I was all on my own.

Shortly after I was back from snorkelling we decided to make our way back to ship, our all aboard time was 5:30, so we had a lot of time, but we were getting tired and ready to make our way back. To leave the Boatyard you of course have to go into the souvenir shop to have them arrange the taxi back to port for you. We waited for about 15 minutes before we got our taxi, of course they were waiting for more people as they wanted to fill the taxi.

Edited October 22, 2017 by jaycruising
missed paragraph

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Once we got back to the port it was time to do a little bit of shopping to find my Barbados souvenirs, which of course is a Christmas decoration. I found one with a turtle and thought that was rather appropriate.

I got this picture before beginning our long walk back to the ship.

We headed back to our room for a shower and clean up before our departure at 6pm. I would spend some time on our balcony getting some sunset pictures before we left.

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Just before sailaway I headed up to deck 17 (for a smoke) and got a couple pictures of the ships still in port as we were leaving. They are blurry, but that is expected on a moving ship with no tripod.

 

 

 

Shortly after this we headed to the dining room for dinner. After we finished dinner we spent some time in the Atrium enjoying the entertainment and then went and changed and headed up to deck 16 to play some cards before calling it a night.

[BarbinMich]

Wonderful photos and they brought back memories of our four visits to Barbados, starting in 1994 and the last in 2016. The first time we did a ship tour, which included the Flower Forest in the middle of the island; it doesn't seem to be visited anymore. The third time we did a private tour with CC friends. It was a counterclockwise tour around the entire island and was wonderful. In the afternoon, not too far north of Bridgetown, we made a stop where we got to swim with the turtles in the ocean--wonderful experience! Thanks for posting!

[jaycruising]

Wonderful photos and they brought back memories of our four visits to Barbados, starting in 1994 and the last in 2016. The first time we did a ship tour, which included the Flower Forest in the middle of the island; it doesn't seem to be visited anymore. The third time we did a private tour with CC friends. It was a counterclockwise tour around the entire island and was wonderful. In the afternoon, not too far north of Bridgetown, we made a stop where we got to swim with the turtles in the ocean--wonderful experience! Thanks for posting!

 

Glad you are enjoying the photos! I really did love Barbados.

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Not really sure if anyone is following along, but I am going to carry on anyway. Sorry for the delay it took longer then usual to get this post ready as I had to make some changes to my hosting site and personal website, before I could finish this post.

 

 

Day 9 (November 22, 2016) St Lucia

 

Heading into St Lucia I wasn't super exicited about this island, I wasn't exactly sure what we should do while we were here. Everything I read involved quite a bit of time riding around the island on a bus, not really our thing. After taling to some people on our roll call, we decided to sign up with them on the Jalousie / Sugar Bay Beach Break tour with Spencer Ambrose Tours. Their site was very easy to book with, we pad a deposit of $20 each and the remainder on the day of the tour. The tour cost $90 each, and was fully inclusive, transportation, food, water, pop, beer (I think) and delicious rum punch!

 

 

This was our view pulling into port in the morning.