Day 7 was at sea. It was a nice and relaxing day. We had lots of time to explore the ship.
Not every cruise comes complete with a gingerbread village. In the entrance to one of the lounges, there was this gingerbread village that was probably between 20 and 30 feet long. The whole ship was decorated for Christmas -- garland on the balconies, Christmas trees in the dining rooms. And there was even a sing-a-long in the Centrum that night.
The captain took us on a water site-seeing tour of Monsterrat. This is what's left of this part of the island after the volcano.
Day 6 was spent in Barbados. The morning in the city was a little overwhelming with all the people trying to sell you stuff. Or have you buy them stuff at the duty free prices. It really did have more of a big city feel than any other place we went.
The afternoon was a blast. We went on a mini-buggy excursion (so much better than the ATVs). The weather was gorgeous, the views were incredible, the buggies were great!
Ready to go -- a self portrait.
The views were spectacular and those buggies could move!
The beautiful beach
Day 5 was in St. Lucia. We took a tour of a cocoa plantation and a waterfall that required spending a lot of time on a bus on some very curvy roads. Our dinner mates saw the same waterfall with a 15 minute boat ride and a short taxi ride. One more tip for cruising. Bring a light weight windbreaker/rain jacket. You might need it.
Our suitcases barely fit inside the closet. Next time we'll take the roller duffle bags that will store better.
Our ship stopped for re-fueling in St. Croix. We were able to get off of the ship for 3 hours. Most everything was closed so we didn't get to see a whole lot, but we both agreed the island may be worth checking out at some future date. Above is a picture of the Serenade of the Seas during our stop in St. Croix.
Day 3: Our second stop was in St. Maarten. Our objective in St. Maartin was quite simple shopping in the am and an ATV tour in the afternoon. St. Maarten is where we discovered Guavaberry Coladas. If you go to St. Maarten, make sure to stop off at the Guavaberry Emporium and get a sample. Yum! The ATV tour was a little disappointing as it was mostly on road. I had a heck of a time steering the thing. Chris said it was because they don't handle nearly as well on road as they do off road. The tiny bit we did off road was a lot more fun. Next time we cruise, we'll have to go with another couple and they guys can go on the ATV tour. I think I'd prefer to sit on the beach.
When you leave the ship, make sure you pay attention to appearance. You're going to have your picture taken. Of all the pictures taken of us, this was the most decent of the two of us. I think it was windy that day.
Day 2 of our cruise was a stop in St. Thomas. Bet you couldn't figure that out from the picture above.
Happy New Year!
For those pestering for pictures, I'll start adding a few here. I'm working on a book. If you're nice to me, I may post a link to the PDF version for all to see when it's done. Maybe.
We'll start with Day 1(aka the day we arrived on the ship). Here's a pic from our balcony looking out on Puerto Rico. We set sail at 10pm.
