Celebrity Silhouette 10 Night Eastern Caribbean Photo Review - March 13, 2023

[Marvy Mare]

 

The ride was fantastic. So much information, friendly people and great scenery. I forgot to mention that Jill Biden was somewhere on the island while we were there. The Bidens are regular visitors to St. Croix, somewhere around  Christiansted. They don't own a place. I guess just a regular Air B & B. Lol. Our guides were great. It was Steve's last day. He had been working on trails to the north of the island. He planned to lead Eco Tours there. Both Randy and Steve were from somewhere in the United States, but had come to love the island life and were very involved in the community. Bonus, since St. Croix is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands (a U.S. territory they can live and work there.)

And though we didn't see any turtles in our travels, there were a number of them floating around by the ship. I did remember reading before our vacation that you didn't have to leave port at one stop to see Sea Turtles. Guess it was St. Croix! 

 

 

It was an early sail away (4pm) from a beautiful island. And we only saw a bit of it. The sun finally came out. I'm glad it waited. I needed a bit of a break from that bright warm sun. 

 

[Marvy Mare]

The pilot boat heading in. 

 

 

Sandy point to the right. 

 

 

The town houses in this photo are  "The Projects' - community housing. As our tour guide said 'Where in the world can you find community housing like that? - a view of the water and a beach."

 

 

These men must have no fear of heights.

 

All the people in St. Croix are friendly. I think he was waving to me. 

 

 

 

Goodbye St. Croix!

[Wrunkles]

1 hour ago, Marvy Mare said:

The town houses in this photo are  "The Projects' - community housing. As our tour guide said 'Where in the world can you find community housing like that? - a view of the water and a beach.

That's interesting.  We walked down past there.  At first I thought it was a school but as we walked on I couldn't figure it out.   We ended walking back and stopping at The Fred.  It's the white building in the bottom left of your picture.  

[Marvy Mare]

Wrunkles - Was the Fred a restaurant?

 

Maris

[Wrunkles]

It's a little boutique hotel.  They have a bar/restaurant that anyone can visit and sit on the water.  That's what we did.  They do have a day pass too where you can use their pool, chairs etc.

[rerepunim]

Thank you !! What a great photo review 🤩

[aml3679]

Following and enjoying 

[Marvy Mare]

12 hours ago, Wrunkles said:

It's a little boutique hotel.  They have a bar/restaurant that anyone can visit and sit on the water.  That's what we did.  They do have a day pass too where you can use their pool, chairs etc.

I will have to keep that in mind. Add to my notes as an idea for future visits. Funny name. It must have something to do with the town name. Lol! I checked it out on Trip Advisor and the ratings are good. On a normal calm day the beach would probably be great too. Though it looks like you might require water shoes there. I did a crop to show 'The Fred'.

 

9 hours ago, rerepunim said:

 

 

[Marvy Mare]

9 hours ago, rerepunim said:

Thank you !! What a great photo review 🤩

Thank you for following and commenting. As I mentioned before it's nice to know that I'm not alone!😁

Maris

[Marvy Mare]

1 hour ago, aml3679 said:

Following and enjoying 

Thank you. From Bradenton. I guess you could drive to your cruises. That would make it easy!

 

Maris 

[Marvy Mare]

DAY 6 CRUISE - Saturday, March 18

Antigua

I finally figured out that I hadn't adjusted the time on my camera to Daylight Saving Time. Are the islands on Eastern Time? Do they need Daylight Saving Time? I'll have to check that out. Anyway, something that I also figured out on Day 6 of our 4th cruise - Cafe al Bacio opens at 6am. Some mornings we'd had our second coffee by then but if not it was a great choice. We always have cookies with our morning coffee, that we pick up the evening before in the Oceanview. On this particular morning we had forgotten the evening pick up. Hence, Cafe al Bacio! It was a bit more of a walk for me - down to the 5th floor from the 10th, rather than up the the 14th (skipping the 13th all together). But it was worth the extra steps. And I could always use the extra steps. We just drink plain old coffee (they call it Americano at those fancy places) but the Cafe coffee was fresh ground and wonderful. The treats changed every day, and the staff was friendly and enthusiastic. I see why people raved about it.

 

I was a little late for my walk around the deck, probably 5:15am by the time I got there. But I needed to put in my steps early. We had our second 'Shore Excursion' that morning at 9:30. It was just a 'Beach Transfer'. We probably could have arranged it ourselves but we still remembered our last visit to Antigua and being overwhelmed by the tour guides offering their services. We did an island tour that time. It was also a Celebrity Shore Excursion. It was great and we saw a lot of the island. Ken, also spent 3 months in Antigua many years ago and had lots of great stories of island life. 

 

The sail in to Antigua is beautiful. The Cruise port is in a protected bay, marked in red on this map.

 

[Marvy Mare]

It was cloudy and windy again.

 

 

Hold on to your hat!

 

Starting to clear!

 

 

One of the 365 beaches.

 

Another rainbow!

 

Hey there lonely guy! Not sure where everyone was. It was 6:30am. And the sun was ready to break through the clouds. 

 

 

[Marvy Mare]

First ship in port. Seven Seas Splendor was supposed to be there an hour before us and Marella Discovery arriving around the same time. I don't think they were in port at all that day. I checked the port schedule later in the day as well. It still said that those ships were supposed to be there. Lost at sea?

 

 

 

 

Getting ready for us!

 

The dogs are ready to go to the park. It was a wild day here in Central Ontario, Canada yesterday. Thunderstorms all day. So they need a good walk today. 

[Wrunkles]

3 hours ago, Marvy Mare said:

I will have to keep that in mind. Add to my notes as an idea for future visits. Funny name. It must have something to do with the town name. Lol! I checked it out on Trip Advisor and the ratings are good. On a normal calm day the beach would probably be great too. Though it looks like you might require water shoes there. I did a crop to show 'The Fred'.

 

 

Yes you would need water shoes.  Here are some pictures that you can kind of see the beach

[Marvy Mare]

DAY 6 CRUISE

ANTIGUA

 

 

We waited in the theatre to be called for our excursion. Can you find Ken in this picture?

It was a fairly big group on our excursion. We were early and waiting. If we weren't about 1/2 an hour early for everything we do, it would mean that Ken was off his game. We end up waiting. That's why I always have a book to read on my iPhone. At 9:30 we headed out to the waiting buses (more like large vans). Each bus held 15 to 20 people. As we were the last ones in our small group to board (even though we were early) Ken got to sit up right next to the driver. Poor guy. Ken is a bit of a nervous passenger and that driver knew his way around quickly. It was a bit of a wild ride. 

 

The beach turned out to be Dickenson Bay Beach, a beautiful stretch of white sand beach. The little chair rental/snack bar that we were by (Sneaky Pete's) was right next to Sandals, Antigua. 

 

 

 

Relaxing after a harrowing ride. 

 

These folks are waiting for the catamaran to come in. It was very windy. Snorkelling tours had been cancelled again. 

 

 

 

Sandals 

 

 

 

Still waiting

 

 

Oops

 

 

 

[Marvy Mare]

13 minutes ago, Wrunkles said:

Yes you would need water shoes.  Here are some pictures that you can kind of see the beach

I meant to just copy your comment. Thanks for sharing your pictures. That must be locally brewed beer - Leatherback. I like to try the local brew too. Yes a coral beach. I think we will find water shoes for our next vacation. 

 

Maris

[Marvy Mare]

ANTIGUA - continued

 

We talked to some nice people sitting near us at the beach. One couple from New York and Florida and another couple from my home town - Vancouver, Canada. I think they were in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver. They were telling us that they sold their waterfront home in the Okanagan, and bought in a family 'compound' outside of Vancouver. They bought property with a few houses on it. One for each of the families. They had 2 or 3 grown children with children of their own. I thought that it sounded like a cool idea. Better than sharing a house. We have one of those next door. There always seems to be minor conflict over who does what or is it whom does what? And worst of all, the older couple has the basement. I think they footed most of the bill. A basement is a basement, even if it's a walkout. That's about all we use our walk out basement for. Walking in and out on the lakeside in the summer. I digress. Back to Antigua.

 

It was a beautiful day and a nice relaxing time at Dickenson Bay. I walked the length of the beach. Only fell once when the waves washed away the shoreline. (19,000 steps that day) I swam a few times. The water was the perfect temperature. Salty though 😆. The bottom dropped off very quickly. Not safe for non-swimmers or good for stand and pee in the water types. And you had to wait for the waves to recede to enter and leave the water. But it was fun and why go to the beach if you aren't going to swim? The trip back to the port was uneventful.

 

We found seats in our favourite area on Deck 14, with our friends Angus and Lorie, overlooking the pool area. No fighting over seats on Port Days. I didn't even notice too much of that on this trip. There were times we couldn't sit where we liked but always found somewhere with shade and a view. I wasn't thrilled with the people who saved seats in the sun and the shade, so they could move back and forth but other than that Que Sera Sera! And I actually don't get the sitting in the sun all day either. I'm sure some folks got miserable burns. I got burnt sitting in the shade.

 

We went back to our room later in the afternoon to have a glass of wine on our veranda. 

 

Our next door neighbour. I'm not sure if our neighbours spoke English. Didn't speak to us anyway.

 

There are those yellow catamarans. We probably saw one of them a few hours earlier. 

 

Looks like rush hour. Almost time for sail away. 

 

Lady Lisa and crew provided the Sail Away entertainment. If you were on the port side you'll probably remember them. 

 

Lady Lisa picked up some of the fellows that did the tying and untying or the mooring lines. The fellow standing in the back of the boat was not happy. Clearly saying f...ing over and over. It was the only thing we could hear clearly from the 10th floor. Very animated and very entertaining but he was clearly very angry about something. I wonder if he still has a job. 

 

Goodbye St. Johns, Antigua. 

 

[Barwick Cruiser]

Loving this review and all your wonderful pictures. Agree about the storm yesterday, just didn’t seem to want to go away lol, my husband kept saying he thought the skies were clearing and within minutes we could hear the thunder rumbling and another system moved overhead. Fortunately our hydro only flickered a couple times but never stayed out…we were lucky! Looks much nicer for the weekend 🌞

Happy Easter! 🐣 

PS love that lightning photo, very cool!

Edited April 6, 2023 by Barwick Cruiser

[Wrunkles]

Such nice pictures!  Antigua is definitely one of my top favorites.  We were on the same beach but on the other end by Ana's.  There was a jetty that you could walk out on. We had chairs right there.  We never got to walk down to your side.  There was a old time red phone booth on the beach there.  I'm not sure if you saw that or not.  My SIL walked down to it and got some neat pictures.   

[Marvy Mare]

19 hours ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

Loving this review and all your wonderful pictures. Agree about the storm yesterday, just didn’t seem to want to go away lol, my husband kept saying he thought the skies were clearing and within minutes we could hear the thunder rumbling and another system moved overhead. Fortunately our hydro only flickered a couple times but never stayed out…we were lucky! Looks much nicer for the weekend 🌞

Happy Easter! 🐣 

PS love that lightning photo, very cool!

Happy Easter to you too! It will be a busy weekend at our place. Glad the wild storm is over and our hydro stayed on! We would have been in trouble. Our sump pump that rarely runs was going non-stop yesterday. 

 

Maris

[Marvy Mare]

9 hours ago, Wrunkles said:

Such nice pictures!  Antigua is definitely one of my top favorites.  We were on the same beach but on the other end by Ana's.  There was a jetty that you could walk out on. We had chairs right there.  We never got to walk down to your side.  There was a old time red phone booth on the beach there.  I'm not sure if you saw that or not.  My SIL walked down to it and got some neat pictures.   

Did you just take a cab? It was certainly a beautiful beach. I didn't see the red phone booth. Probably should have walked a little further. I have arthritis in my feet. Put a stop to my running career. 😁 I find that walking in sand really helps my feet. I even asked my doctor for an Rx for a beach vacation. He just laughed. 

 

Maris

[Marvy Mare]

DAY 6 - Saturday, March 18

Antigua (cont.)

 

Just the sail away onto the sunset. One of the reasons that I booked late for us 7:15 dinners, was so we could see the sunsets. I'm never sure about the time but usually earlier than our later up north sunsets. We face west over a lake at home but Caribbean sunsets are better than ours. Maybe something to do with being warm while I take the pictures. 

 

 

 

First the Pilot Boat. 

 

 

 

 

Me, the nosey neighbour again. 

 

As the sun set below the horizon, the clouds turned from gold to pink.

 

 

 

 

And a final goodbye to Antigua!

[Marvy Mare]

DAY 7 CRUISE - Sunday, March 19

Basseterre, St. Kitts & Nevis

 

I was up too early again, 3:30am and it was still dark. At least I never sleep through a sail in to a port. I read for a while so Ken could sleep a little longer. Then off to get coffee, first up to the Ocean View and the second trip to Cafe al Bacio. Walking around deck 14 is always busier on a port day but I got my basic steps in and then had an early breakfast.

We were due to arrive at St. Kitts at 7am. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mein Schiff was just pulling into port.

 

And it looked like another windy day!

 

The library was right near our room. I looked for a book there but the selection was limited. The few books that I thought looked interesting weren't in English. 

 

 

Mein Schiff

 

Basseterre

 

Captain and crew trying to figure out where to park. Was it just us or did anyone else not understand a work that Captain George said?

 

The nosey neighbour again. Checking out some passengers on Mein Schiff. Notice how many are still in their housecoats. It was 7am. I'd been up for hours. 😊

 

The sun peeping through the clouds.

 

[Barwick Cruiser]

Stunning sunset photos! We could understand Captain George but really had to focus..very strong accent for sure. Funny about the windy ports, we were told by locals that Feb is the windiest month in the Caribbean, wonder if that’s just what they tell the visitors 🤣🤔

[Marvy Mare]

1 hour ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

Stunning sunset photos! We could understand Captain George but really had to focus..very strong accent for sure. Funny about the windy ports, we were told by locals that Feb is the windiest month in the Caribbean, wonder if that’s just what they tell the visitors 🤣🤔

They told us in St. Croix and Antigua that it was never that windy. The only way I could understand Captain George was if it was quiet and we had our room door open. 

 

Maris