St. Kitts and Antigua

Day 4 we arrived in St. Kitts bright and early and Trey and I got off the boat with no itinerary in mind. We didn't know much about the island and thought we'd just see what the day brought us. It didn't take long to figure out. When we walked through the welcome sign at the port we were greeted by tons of taxi drivers holding up signs for this or that tour. We got a deal with one guy named Talbo and he ended up doubling up as our taxi driver/ tour guide. He even had a head set and was talking to us the whole time and describing the sights. It was great!

Good Morning St. Kitts!

Vervet Monkey- they're so cute!

Stop at Caribelle Batik- where they print on fabric

Caribelle Batik

Black Rock Beach

When the tour was done he dropped us off at Frigate Bay where we enjoyed a lunch with a beautiful view of a very isolated bay and then relaxed for a little bit before we headed back to the port. While we enjoyed the day, there really isn't that much to see or do on the island so we were ready to move onto the next stop in Antigua.

Frigate Bay

That night Trey and I had made reservations to dine at one of the specialty restaurants on the ship, Portofino. We almost cancelled them before we left because the only reservation time they had available was 6 pm and since we wanted to get the most out of our days we thought we might be rushed getting back to the ship in time to get ready. But- we were so glad we didn't. It was our favorite dinner of the entire cruise. Not necessarily because the food was great- which it was!, but because we finally had a table for 2 and they sat us right next to the window where we could see the ship leaving port and setting sail for St. Maarten. It was such a pretty view and we were glad for the early seating because it was still light enough to enjoy the view.

It was kinda funny too because after we'd stuffed ourselves with all kinds of exotic appetizers and meals our server brought us a dessert that said "Happy Anniversary!" haha When we booked the cruise the travel agent had asked me if we were celebrating anything special. I told her not really, but she pressed me to say something because she said they sometimes will do something special for you so I said, ok, our early anniversary! haha. Why not?! ha The dessert was de- licious! I mean, the food on those ships is just sinful. Nobody should eat that much! But, it was a treat for a week.

We left dinner and took a breather in our room to settle our full stomachs then it was up to the top deck for a little put put and back to the club for more dancing!

Day 5 in Antigua was beautiful! Out of all our ports of call we enjoyed Antigua and St. Maarten the best. We would love to go back one day and stay a week... or longer :) We met a tour guide at 8:30 am... very early for vacation, I know (seems to be a theme for cruises) and the guide took us all over the island to see some of the major tourist attractions.

The first stop was Blockhouse and Shirley Heights lookout point.

You could see a breathtaking view of the English Harbor and Nelson's Dockyard down below and it was especially beautiful that day we were there because of the sailing races taking place. I've never seen so many sailboats at one time! It was such a sight to see.

From Shirley Heights we made our way down to Nelson's dockyard, named after Admiral Nelson who established Great Britain's Caribbean base on the island in the 1700s. We really enjoyed walking around the dockyard and marina and learning more about the history of the island- and let's not forget the stop for our free rum punch included on the tour. Those Caribbean islands sure do love the rum. Now I see the ongoing theme of rum in Pirates of the Caribbean. It flows in the islands like water. ha

From the dockyard it was back to the port but we lucked out since we took the early tour because it was only about 11:30 in the morning and they offered to drop us off at a beach for a few hours if we chose to. Trey and I decided to camp out at the popular Dickenson Bay and just enjoyed relaxing by the calm water for a few hours. I was in heaven and didn't want to leave. It was a great day!

Dickenson Bay

And- that night was our second formal night on the ship!

I love any opportunity to get all dressed up and Trey and I had a great time at dinner with our new friends Andrea and Oscar. They were from Guadalajara, Mexico and shared a table with us all week. We really enjoyed getting to know them and I even got to practice my Espanol. Though- their English was much better than my Spanish ;)

Next up... St. Maarten/ St. Martin (it's both Dutch and French depending on what part of the island you're on)