Bridgetown, Barbados
Barbados was a repeat port. Last time we did a catamaran trip to a few snorkeling spots and had a fantastic day. So great that we almost just did the exact same trip again. But eventually we decided that we’d like to see a bit of the island and went with a tour company called Glory Tours. It was going to be a full day.

First stop Harrison’s Cave. I’ve been in many caves during my lifetime. At some point it usually involves crouching down and walking in a stooped position. Not this cave. This is a cave the likes I’ve never seen before. It’s huge! So big in fact that you don’t walk through it. They drive you through it in a tram. Some of the open areas are like 100 feet high (they told us the exact height but I don’t remember). It was filled with gorgeous stalactites and stalagmites which are constantly growing. The entire time we were in the cave it was drip, drip, drip, drip on our heads. At first it was kind of annoying but after a while I kind of got used to it.

After the cave we stopped for lunch. I was really looking forward to some flying fish and was told that’s what we’d be having. It’s the national dish of Barbados and very tasty. Alas, when we arrived at the lunch spot we were told they were out of flying fish and we were served kingfish instead. I’d never heard of it but it was quite tasty.

Next stop was the Wildlife Reserve. The main attraction there is the green monkeys. They are a pest on the island. Our guide said that for every monkey tail brought in a person can collect a $25 reward. Ick. Anyway, they’re super cute and not very friendly. They feed them pieces of coconut and surround the reserve area with bananas to draw them in. There’s also a very large walk through area with turtles, gators, snakes, birds, deer and other assorted creatures. The more we walked through there the bigger we realized it was. It’s a beautiful and very serene park that could not be adequately covered in the hour or so we had there. Time restraints are the drawback of this type of tour, of course.

Next stop was a snorkeling trip to see the turtles. We did this last time and enjoyed it so much we thought we’d like to do it again. We made a mistake and forgot G’s snorkeling raft –bummer—but were able to make do with her lifejacket, donut life preserver and goggles. It actually worked out pretty well! We saw TONS of turtles. I’m thinking at least a dozen, possibly more. I love the turtles! I mean I really do love them but there were so many surrounding me that a few times I had to push them away a bit. The boat captain fed them sardines which they must really like because they swarmed us. Awesome! We also snorkeled the shipwreck again which I think is a complete bore. The fish, although plentiful, are all silver and the wreck is kind of whatever with snorkel and mask. If I was to do the trip over I’d request double time at turtles, no shipwreck.

After that it was pretty late and we had to be getting back to the ship. Another great port day from which we were all completely pooped out. Seven port days in a row is a lot. Especially when you do them like us, commando style go, go, go!

The cave was amazing!

The green monkeys

Georgie really wanted to touch and reach toward the monkeys. I had to keep telling her over and over "these are not nice monkeys, they will bite".

G trying to swing like George of the Jungle on the vines :-)

The animal preserve was really pretty. G here with another of her creative poses :-)

This was a gorgeous beach. Although seriously beautiful it also had some obviously dangerous tides. Great photo stop.

Now this is a close encounter with a turtle!

G really enjoyed the turtles

At the shipwreck site we were surrounded by fish. G enjoyed feeding them crackers.

Tomorrow: St Kitts!

Thanksgiving 2011
We've been so busy since we got back trying to get into the swing of things and getting ready for Thanksgiving that I almost missed our November pix. We sneaked in there right at the last minute though. Good thing, I wouldn't have wanted to miss my cute little gobbler!

Rosseau, Dominica
First things first: its pronounced Daw-mo-nee-kuh not to be confused with the Dominican Republic. Another new stop for us!

Dominica is a stop that few ships make. It’s very natural and, unlike most of the other islands, has no real port area specifically designed for cruisers. There is no Diamonds International. Charming and beautiful but also a bit concerning as tourism is the island’s primary income. Again, through my cruise critic roll call I was able to organize a private tour for 9 with Pepper of Sweet Dominica. Pepper, like most of the guides, is a super nice guy. Yes, they’re paid to be nice to you but I usually genuinely like them. Usually they’re married, they have kids and they’re just trying to scratch out a living as best they can.

Besides its general beauty and beautiful rain forest, Dominica doesn’t have a lot of specific must sees. There are the falls: Emerald, Trafalgar and Titou Gorge, the botanical garden and the sulphur springs. I was really happy that we toured with Pepper and he’d impressed upon us to get off the ship early. Our van was full and pulling out of the port area before most of our fellow cruisers were making their way to disembark. That means that we were the very first ones up the hill to the Emerald Pool. Gorgeous.

After that we stopped by a black sand beach for a bit of swimming and a bite to eat. G is almost always up for some beach time. What’s funny is that each morning as we were getting ready for our day she’d tell us that she didn’t want to go to the beach that day. We’d just say ok then move on. But as soon as we’d get off the ship, she’d start asking when we were going to the beach. Once there she plays, laughs and screams her little head off. Goofball. I’ve discovered I’m not a fan of the black sand beach. That black stuff gets into your bathing suit and never seems to come out.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, only the ship excursions can visit Trafalgar in the morning. All private tours can only enter in the afternoon (after 2pm). Pepper had us up there about 1:45. Definitely unfortunately we had one member of our group—remember that annoying couple from Antigua??? – who had some mobility issues. Sigh. This really slowed us down getting up to the falls so even though we were early by the time we got up there it was crowded. Bummer. It’s a double fall though and still very pretty.

We then made a stop at the botanical garden. For future reference it’s someplace I’d only visit if I was on a land vacation. The garden is large and going through there at a leisurely pace would take a full afternoon. One couple in our group wanted to go to Screw Spa. It’s a sulphur spring. Bobby and I didn’t think it would appeal to G and neither of us like the idea of soaking in community pools so that was a pass.

We never made it to Titou Gorge. I’d like to return to Dominica some time. I nicknamed it “the bumpy island” due to the poor quality of the roads. Next time Titou Gorge will be first on my list of places to go.

Bobby and G take a refreshing dip in the Emerald Pools. G said she didn't want to go in at first. Then once she saw Bobby near the waterfall she changed her mind.
At Trafalgar Falls
The sulphur springs were pretty smelly... G can't stand any sort of smell at all. She has a very sensitive schnoz

Haha

One of the things we could always depend on was the tasty chocolate truffle cake. Yum!!!

Just like on Carnival, the room stewards leave towel animals on the bed each night. G loved them. This is her impression of an elephant.

Great day!

Tomorrow: Barbados!

St John’s, Antigua
Antigua was a new stop for us. One word: stunning. Truly, just stunning.

We booked a tour with Tour Guide Gordon who was another one of my cruise critic finds. We hooked up with another couple from our roll call to do an island tour and transportation to the stingrays. We’d done the rays on Grand Cayman last year and loved them. I was curious to compare the two experiences. We ended up with a total of 9 on our tour: our 5, a cute young couple, and another couple who really kind of bugged me. Oh well, what can you do right? Anyway, first stop was a really cool fort and historical area, Shirley Heights. I’ve learned a lot about the history of the islands on this trip and the fighting that took place between the English and the French for control over the islands. Nearly every island has forts and it’s interesting to compare them. Antigua was a major stronghold.



After checking out the fort area for awhile we had some lunch and then headed to the rays. On Antigua its run by a single company who about 10 yrs ago built an enclosure on a sandbar about 10 mins boat ride to shore to trap many rays in. After some time and regular feeding the enclosure was taken down allowing the rays to come and go as they pleased but, of course, they now come around freely for the daily food. The rays were HUGE! They can live a really long time and some of these must have been pretty old because they were enormous. We had a pretty good amount of time with them. Just like last time, G was thrilled. Sadly, our pictures are pretty crappy.

Having enjoyed the rays we moved on to a natural wonder called Devil’s Bridge. Seeing it was a trip highlight for me. It is so beautiful. I took dozens of pictures with my pretty decent compact camera but none of them will ever do the area justice. It was absolutely gorgeous. Gordon said it got its name because supposedly slaves were sometimes given the choice to become a slave or jump from the natural bridge and gain freedom. Of course, that almost certainly meant death but some made that choice.

There are vendors at the coast selling their trinkets on small card tables. I always try to look at what they’re selling and often buy something small if it catches my eye. I wonder, as they sit there hour after hour day after day in the heat and humidity, if they’re even see the beauty of their location anymore. Probably not. I think it’s a hard life. Each day they sit there watching tourists jump out of air conditioned vehicles sporting expensive sunglasses and snapping pix on their uber pricey cameras then jump back into the comfort of their vans. I wonder if it bothers them when people try to bargain them down from $5 to $4 on the shell encrusted frame they’re selling? I hear a lot of people complain about the vendors and I understand it can be a bit bothersome to be approached by yet another young woman wanting to braid G’s hair. But, I try to keep in mind that we tourists are their number one source of income and there is a lot of competition for our dollars that they need to keep their families going. I try hard to remember that our family is very fortunate to be able to make these types of trips when others are struggling just to get their basics satisfied. I try, and hope we are teaching G, not to be an “ugly, entitled tourist”. Then I either look if interested or politely say “no thank you” with a respectful smile.

Back on the ship we went to dinner. I don’t remember what we had but it was probably pretty crappy. The food has been consistently bad throughout. They seem to have difficulty getting all the meals done at the same time so someone’s food is always cold. Plus, the food itself is just not good. It ranges from barely edible to downright gross. There are a few things that are tasty and we eat those: broccoli soup, wild mushroom quesadilla, chocolate raspberry truffle cake. As has become our routine, after dinner G goes to the kids club for the evening program and we go to the show. Tonight was the hypnotist, Terrance B. Oh my gosh what a stupid show. It just goes to show the lengths that some people will go to get themselves on stage, and a cruise ship stage at that. Phooey. It was so bad that it was comical so Bobby and I enjoyed ourselves by laughing at the silliness of it all.

No canon is safe from G. She will climb it, lay on it, jump on it!
Isn't this a gorgeous view? By the way, that group buildings on that hill in the pic is Eric Clapton's house!! Can you even imagine???
Overlooking the bay where the English hid their ships from view of the French during battle.

This is one of my favorite, non Georgie, pix I took on our trip

Devil's Bridge is the structure in the middle. I so wish my limited photographic skills were enough to capture the beauty of this place. There are tubes drilled into the rock below your feet here and as each wave came in we'd hear a whoosh and a rumble. It was awesome!

This stop was late in our day and G had fallen asleep in the van. Bobby said he's just stay with her while I went to look. Once I saw it, I walked back up to tell Bobby he couldn't miss this one. Luckily, G had just woken up!

With the rays. This one was fairly representative of the size of most of them.

G liked feeding them. She held the fish then I put my hand all the way around hers to feed. Rays eat by sucking their food up very hard. Its like a very strong vaccuum hose so you have to be careful or it can hurt.

Awesome day!!

Tomorrow: Rosseau, Dominica

St Martin/Marteen
We had a smidge of a plan going into this port. We wanted to go to the butterfly farm and we wanted to go to the beach. Last time we went to a really nice beach called Orient (nude on one side, topless on the other :-) so that seemed like an easy choice.

We partnered up with two couples that we’d met on the ship to share a private excursion and off we went. We ended up visiting an iguana “farm”… dunno about the “farm” part. It just looked like some beat up old buildings with a bunch of iguana hanging out. Our guide bought a bag of bananas to feed the iguana. One thing I learned is that iguana are good swimmers! They move through the water quickly kind of like an alligator. Very cool thing to see. There were also about a dozen small cages (maybe 3x3’ square) holding some extremely well groomed roosters. My fears were confirmed by our guide: cock fighting. Apparently completely legal and acceptable on the island. So sad. We fed the iguanas some bananas, pet them a bit and then moved on to the butterflies.

The butterfly farm is really just a very large screened in area filled with tropical plants. Can you say HUMID? Yikes!

G had a single goal: she wanted to have butterflies land on her. I didn’t think this was going to be a problem but it turned out to be a bit more challenging to accomplish than expected. The butterflies hardly ever landed. It seemed like they were in constant motion. When they did land it was for an extremely brief time (think ½ to1 second) and then they were off again. Or, if they did land, they’d close their wings. After awhile I started to really wonder if G was going to get to hold a butterfly. She usually has an incredible amount of patience for a three yr old but she was starting to lose it a bit. It didn’t help that it was about 100% humidity in there and we were all dripping with sweat. Finally, Bobby found the newly emerged butterfly section and managed to get one of the newbies onto his hand. Since it was young and weak he was able to transfer it to G and then it just sort of stuck there. Yeah! Success! G was very gentle and after holding it for awhile Bobby helped her put it back into the newborn section. Tragedy avoided.

Next stop Orient Beach. G had her normal fun laughing and screaming as she played in mostly less than 12 inches of water. Then we had a quick lunch and worked our way over to Maho Beach in hopes of seeing the planes take off and land. I could have skipped it. We did it last time and I felt like I’d BTDT but the others in our group had never been. It is a St Marten must do. We got lucky because a big plane was just landing when we go there. Then, that was it. We sat there almost an hour and the only thing we saw was a few cessnas taking off. Kind of a let down.

Final stop: ship! At least that was the plan. As it turned out, Queen Beatrice of Holland, was visiting her island and set to leave that afternoon. What this meant was that all traffic came to a screeching halt and we ended up sitting parked in the van for at least an hour. Its times like this that I really appreciate how agreeable G is. We sang some songs, she played with her doll and she was fine. The one positive out of the whole thing is that the queen’s cavalcade came right by us. She and her entourage came through in a large black expedition type vehicle led and followed by a few motorcycles. All I could think is that the Dutch must not be too worried about her safety. If it was the American president there would be car after car of security and other people and he would never come through in a vehicle without tinted glass. Ah well, I guess that was my brush with royalty. For a split second we were less than 10 feet away from her.

Back on the ship for dinner. Tonight’s was my worst. It was cold, sent it back, returned cold again. Uhhh, ok, skip that. Then G went to the kid’s club for their Very Merry Unbirthday party. On a side note, G has been loving the kids club! It seems to work out to have her go for about 1.5-2 hrs in the evening after dinner. They have lots of activities then and we get some down time. Nice. Thankfully, with a bit of intervention from the Asst Cruise Director, our issue with the supervisor was resolved, hopefully for good. Without G in tow, Bobby and I decided to go to the show! It was a not very funny comedian. Even so, it was nice to have a bit of grown up down time.

Checking out the reptiles
They really went for those bananas
There's this lookout area where a local stands and shows tourists sea life like urchin and sand dollars and such. He has a collection of shells there for the taking conch, etc and you can give him a buck or two. G picked this huge sand dollar. The animal is not inside any longer. Conch is a very popular food in the islands. I'll have to try it some time I guess but it just doesn't look appealing to me whatsoever.

At the butterfly farm. Trying to get a picture of one with its wings open was an incredible feat. It didn't help that I was using my pocket camera with the auto focus.

This is the butterfly G finally got to hold. Isn't it beautiful? It almost doesn't look real.

Again, it looks like it was photoshopped onto her hand.

At Orient Beach. G body surfs in like 12" of water. Its hysterical to me that she enjoys it. It seems like she just gets washed up onto the shore than runs out to do it again. Certainly this is what seashells feel like.

At Maho... here comes the plane...

and there is goes!!

Tomorrow: St John's, Antigua

Tortola, BVI
We were in Tortola in March of this year. Reading in preparation for the trip it seemed that there was one place that everyone raved about: the Baths. I wanted to go SO badly but was dissuaded from doing so by people seemingly in the know based on their opinion that it was too challenging a trip with a toddler. So instead, last time, we went to a gorgeous beach and had a great time.

When we booked this trip which included a stop in Tortola, there was one thing I knew for certain, I was going to the Baths. I booked an excursion quite some time ago with a company that had a good reputation and had been around for awhile. In fact, it was the same company we did our last Tortola trip with. I was set! But, just a few weeks before our trip, the company went MIA. They stopped responding to emails and that was it. We tried to find another company to book the trip through and came up empty handed. The next alternative was to book through the ship but I wasn’t a fan of the idea. Finally, we decided to go it alone.

The day we docked in Tortola we quickly made our way to the ferry and got our tix. A 40 min ferry ride to the island of Virgin Gorda and a 10 min drive in an open air safari bus later and we were there, the Baths! Well, almost there. We walked down the hill –a bit muddy in a few places but really no big deal --and came to a beautiful beach. But that’s not what we were there for. No way. We wanted Devil’s Bay which is only accessible by climbing around, through and over these enormous boulders. Some places were a bit tight. Some required tromping through the water. We even got a bit confused and ended up taking a longer and more difficult route but we finally found our way and boy was it worth it! As we came through the last tunnel we were thrilled to find an absolutely gorgeous beach. Beautiful, amazing, breath-taking… are there some other words synonymous with pretty that I’m missing?? G frolicked (there really is no more descriptive word for what G does when we’re at the beach) in the waves. She screamed and ran and jumped herself to exhaustion. After that we hiked back.

The amazing thing was that G was just fine. In fact, in many ways the trip was easier for her than it was for us taller adults. Where we had to bend and squat or turn sideways to navigate, she could just walk right on through. And, I was so proud of her. She didn’t whine or complain even once. What a trooper!

The other shocker to me was how easy it was to do this outing on our own. The people on the ship's excursion rode on our ferry and our same safari bus. The only difference was that they were driven from the ship to the ferry and we walked... all of 10 mins at a casual pace. Of course, almost none of those people used the return transportation so they could walk back through the shopping area. For that they paid double what it cost us per person plus, if we would have booked through the ship, we would have had to pay for G. The way we did it, she was free!

Back on the ship it was time to shower and dress for dinner. We always enjoy dinner in the MDR. This one is very nice. The food really leaves something to be desired though. It’s not terrible. It’s just not that good. Whatevs. Not going to ruin my trip. After that, G was excited about going to the kids club. It was pirate night! Unfortunately we had an issue arise and we had to take it up with the supervisor. Still unresolved we scheduled a meeting with the cruise director to address it. Hoping it all works out well.

Overall A+ day in port, C- on ship. Hoping it improves.

Another of G's now infamous poses. This time with a view of our ship while waiting for the ferry to take us to the Baths.
G loved looking out over the ocean on the way over
We begin our desent

This way to Devil's Bay

G gets so much enjoyment out of playing in the water. She shrieks and laughs and has a great old time

You can see the rock formations in the distance. So beautiful

Making sand angels. All that sand would make me itchy but it doesn't seem to bother my girl

The walk to/from Devil's Bay is filled with these cave areas.

Goofball with her mouth wide open

Tomorrow: St Martin/St Marteen

Samana, Dominican Republic
Unfortunately, Samana is a tender port. One of the nice things about this itinerary is it’s the only one. They just take up so much darn time. I think Samana is a relatively new port to the cruise ships so there aren’t too many excursions available. There are even fewer available with a toddler. We decided to have a beach day. This left us with two main options: first, the ship excursion to their private beach (easy but so pricey) OR second, something on our own. Somehow I became the group leader of a private excursion to a beach called Playa Rincon. Supposedly it was voted in the top ten Caribbean beaches by Conde Nast. Getting there involved the tender, a 40 min taxi, and a 10-15 ride on a little tiny open air boat. Very exciting!

The beach was fantastic. Very few people (in retrospect I'm not sure there was anyone else there other than our group of 10), super clear, warm water and what may have been the softest white sand I’ve ever encountered. G loved playing in the water and digging in the sand. She can pretty much do it for hours. After a bit we had a very nice lunch at an open air palapa restaurant. While we ate our BBQ’d chicken I watched some men shaving the bark off some logs with machetes in preparation to build another palapa. Hmmm, machetes.

Driving through the DR made me feel like we were in another time. We saw lots of stray dogs as well as roaming donkeys and goats. There were even men and women walking down the street balancing huge baskets of stuff on their heads—no hands!!

Back on the ship we showered up and went to dinner. The food was pretty good. Again, I haven’t come across any dish that’s been particularly good but it gets us by. A lot of people skip the included restaurants and go to the upcharge places. Bobby and I have talked about it and it just seems like we can get by on the included food. I guess we could change our mind at some point. So far, my favorite dish has been the wild mushroom quesadilla. Yum! Next best was the buffalo wings.

G wanted to go to the kids club again but we’d just missed the group as they’d gone to a magic show. Plus, she was so tired after her big day and only a 30 min nap in the taxi we thought we should get her to bed.

Off the tender and waiting for the last few members of our group
G playing in the sand which was of the very, very soft white variety
Notice the "sand toys"? One of our goals for our $50 cab ride to wal mart had been to pick G up some sand toys. I figured its Miami, should be no problem even though its November. Ummm, no. The employees I asked looked at me like I was crazy. So I picked up a cheap stack of plastic cups, a couple dollar kitchen spoons, and a water pitcher. I also nabbed the cheapie plastic ice bucket from the hotel we stayed in. G didn't even notice they weren't the conventional toys and had a great time!

Ahhh, this is the life...

This is just a picture I took of the beach. It was so beautiful I kind of wished I would have brought my big camera on the trip.

On the boat ride back. G takes every opportunity to do the hands up/roller coaster thing. Goof.

We had an awesome day. I am so glad we managed to put this trip together. This was especially true after talking to some of my fellow cruisers who were less than thrilled with what was offered in Samana. Several were very unhappy with the town and had experiences so bad they were questioning why the ship would even sail.

Tomorrow: Tortola!