Our Favorite Island- St. Maarten!

Day 6 we woke up in St. Maarten. We had heard so many great things from friends who had been there before and couldn't wait to go shopping in downtown Phillipsburg on the Dutch side and catch some rays on one of the beaches on the French side.

But... the first thing I thought of when I woke up that morning was- Kate Middleton must already be a princess by now! haha. I couldn't get enough of the Royal Wedding coverage from the limited channels we had on the cruise ship and I had been watching some CNN coverage before I went to bed the night before. I was so excited to see her dress and all the crowds so I woke up and turned on the tv. The only thing showing anything was Fox News and I tuned in just in time to see the balcony kiss live. Trey thought I was nuts that I was so into the wedding but it was just so neat to think of a real life fairy tale coming true. I wasn't impressed with her dress or makeup but still thought everything about the wedding was so special and she was one lucky girl. I was glad to at least have seen a little part of history in the making (and no worries- I got my full royal wedding coverage at night when our cruise ship broadcast the entire wedding again with their BBC coverage that night- ha, what can I say, my Nana is British and she built it up for me. I had to watch!

Anyway, back to the island. We got off the ship a little later than usual (because of my wedding obsession) and headed to the water taxi stand for a ride to the downtown area for my favorite.... SHOPPING!!!!!

Waiting for the water taxi. The water was just beautiful! The bluest we saw all week. It was unreal.

Water Taxi

Shopping Shopping Shopping!!!!

Trey and I bought some Guavaberry liquor from this famous store. They decorate their bottles with pretty hand painted designs so we made sure to grab a few as a souvenirs.

After we got our shopping fix in we headed to the French side of the island to the north and camped out at Orient Beach to catch some rays before heading back to the ship. It was very windy but made it feel amazing because the sun was blazing down on us but it felt so breezy you didn't feel the heat.
Did I mention the French side is known for their nude beaches? We saw some topless people where we were laying out but for the most part everyone was in bathing suits. We decided to take a stroll and actually in this picture below we were about to cross the rocks behind us, unbeknownst to us into a major nudist colony part of the beach.

I think Trey was hoping to see find some beauties laying out on the beach but the joke was on him. It was old flabby and fat men and women... mostly men! hahahaha And I mean completely naked! He quickly was over the thrill and wanted back the normal side of the beach but I sure got a laugh out of it. And we both couldn't help but break our straight face when we overheard a man getting lathered up in sunscreen by his wife saying, "hey honey, not on my crack." I kid you not. hahahahaha Yep we saw enough old shriveled twig and berries to last us a lifetime. It was an experience for sure and we got a good laugh in us.
Sadly our time in St. Maarten came and went too quickly. We would have loved to see more of the island and experience the beaches a little longer but there was just so much to do and not enough time to do it. It was back to the port so we didn't get left behind. We would love to go back one day though.

We got back on the ship and hung out by the pool for the take off party. Every day when the cruise ship was leaving a port they'd have a party of some sort by the pool so our typical routine was to get back on board and head to the upper deck to relax in one of the many hot tubs and listen to the calypso band playing. It was a nice way to relax at the end of a crazy tour day.

Sunset leaving St. Maarten

View of the Royal Promenade below (basically an indoor shopping mall inside the ship)

That night our room attendant surprised us with yet another amazing towel design feat. When we got back to our room after dinner we saw he had wrapped our towels into a cute little monkey. He was pretty talented with his work all week but thought this one was pretty neat.
Next post- our last day :( in St. Croix

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)

Caribbean Cruisin' & Barbados!

We made it to the ship, Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas, by 3 pm on Easter Sunday and after what seemed like an eternity waiting in line after line to actually walk onto the ship we got to our room around 4:30. It felt great to finally be in our new home away from home and know that we could actually unpack our things and get comfie.

We decided at the last minute while booking to go ahead and upgrade to a balcony stateroom and we were so glad we did. It was so nice to wake up in the mornings and just pull back the curtain to a beautiful view of whatever island we were visiting that day. I could wake up to views like that any day. It is just breathtaking at times.

After we dropped off our things we had planned to go exploring the ship but decided it was time for Trey to check with the doctor on board to look at his leg. I had been telling him he needed a tetanus shot since I was positive he hadn't had one since he was a kid and you need one every 10 years. I knew he had scraped his leg bad on a metal step but you know Trey. It just wasn't going to happen. However, by the time we got on the ship he was really worried about the color of the skin around his cut and it was starting to look infected. Turns out- it was. And what do you know, Dr. made him get a tetanus shot!

The doctor also gave him some medicine to take for the infection and the next day was our one day on the cruise where we were at sea. We laid out by the pool all day and Trey got fried on his back. I just couldn't understand how though. I had put so much sunscreen on him. He's not usually that sensitive to the sun and then it hit me- the medicine! We decided he should stop taking it since we'd be in the sun the rest of the week but sadly the damage was done on Trey's back. He had to get sunscreen with SPF 30 and lather it on the rest of the trip. :( Needless to say, this trip was just not starting out good for Trey. He handled it like a champ though.

After exploring a little after breakfast we picked the most perfect spot to lay out on the deck because the ship's calypso band came out and started playing and we had a good view of the band and all the people dancing to the music. They were so good and it was so relaxing to lay out while listening to tunes like Bob Marley songs and our new favorite- She's Royal by Tarrus Riley. We heard that song so many times throughout the week on different islands and loved it. It's the perfect song for the islands.

We had so much fun exploring the ship on our at sea day and couldn't believe how much there was to do on board. It was truly overwhelming and a little bizarre at times. It definitely took us a few days to get used to the cruise mentality. It's just a whole different breed of people and things to do than the land trips we were used to. Not bad- just different.

That night was the first formal night on the ship and I love any excuse to get all dressed up. I had finally convinced Trey to bring his suit before we left Atlanta and I'm glad he did. People get really dressed up! It was nice to get a couple of good pictures and we had fun after dinner dancing the night away in one of the cruise's bars to Latin music and its nightclub. I love dancing so I had been really looking forward to our nights out on the ship. Trey was a trooper too and danced with me every night (except for one I think)... though some nights took a little more coaxing than others.

On day 3 we woke up in Bridgetown, Barbados- our first port of call! I had been looking forward to Barbados for months and was so excited for the Catamaran sail we had booked. Too bad the weather was overcast and rainy throughout the day but it didn't stop us from having an amazing time on the boat and snorkeling with the sea turtles.

It was the best excursion we did all week, I think in part because the crew on board were so much fun. They made sure all of us were having a good time by never letting us run out of rum punch and kept the reggae and calypso music jamming in the background all day. It was kinda funny how every time the boat would stop and they'd make an announcement about how long we would have in the water, etc. the captain would always end with "and the bar remains open." ha We took advantage, as most people did. It was a fun day despite the torrential downpour that was waiting for us on the way back to port. I would love to go back to Barbados one day though. I could tell it definitely had more to offer.

Snorkeling with Sea Turtles

Trey and I with the Captain

That night Trey and I hit up the casino on board to try out our luck. We had played the 1 cent slots in Puerto Rico at the hotel there and had fun for almost an hour on about 5 dollars a person so we thought we could do that same on board. Turns out, we didn't have any luck. We had blown through about 30 in 5 minutes and then lost the thrill for playing. We called it a night (after a brief stop for a few dances in the nightclub of course ;) and went to bed to rest up for our next port of call the next day, St. Kitts!

Casino Time

Next post... St. Kitts!