The word lucky doesn't quite capture how I felt about taking a cruise to the Caribbean this November with Chris. We were able to leave the kids at home to be able to get the full mental break that we both wanted. Don't get me wrong, I love our boys so much and cannot wait to start taking bigger trips with the boys, but this trip was so awesome because we got to be selfish with our time. We were able to eat, sleep, be adventurous, read, work out, do whatever we wanted and do it on our time. It was just such a wonderful experience and I am so thankful for our nanny and Chris' parents who made this trip a possibility for us.
This was our third cruise together after previously sailed Alaska and the Western Caribbean. This time we decided to take off to the Southern Caribbean and it did not disappoint. We ended up on Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas and had a great time. Cruising is suited for us. I love that we unpack once but were able to visit 6 different territories/countries. With the exception of our one day at sea, we were docked each morning by 8:00 and had a full day taking off at 5:00 each night. We had great beach days or excursions each day and sailed away at sunset each night - it was perfect. Our crew consisted of folks from 68 countries and the passengers represented 48 different countries. Some nights we'd elected to eat by ourselves with our favorite server Carlos from Mexico City, other nights we elected to eat with our fellow passengers and enjoyed chit chatting with folks from around the globe. The food, drinks, and endless ice cream also suited us well! It was also the perfect opportunity to explore more of the Caribbean to see where we may want to go back for a longer family vacation down the road.
We flew into San Juan Puerto Rico at night so didn't know what we'd be waking up to the next morning. We stayed in Old Town and spent the next very hot day exploring the cobblestone streets and historic fortresses. I was blown away by the historic sites and the colorful buildings and would definitely come back to spend more time on this Island. Old Town felt just like its name sounds, like a cool old town. I was obsessed with the cool colorful buildings and the quaint cafes. A little known fact about my family, my dad was actually born in Puerto Rico when his family was stationed there. Maybe that is why he's got such nice dark skin and why I loved it there :)
Bridgetown, Barbados
We spent our first whole day at sea and then ported in Barbados. We took a snorkel cruise and learned that rum punch is a requirement on every excursion. We snorkeled two different sites, a shipwreck and a turtle cove. Not the best snorkeling of our lives but pretty unbeatable blue water. We made an attempt to visit downtown to grab lunch, but quickly realized that the crazy hustle and bustle of downtown Bridgetown was exactly what we did not want. After that we promptly returned the beach for lunch at a little lobster shack and a few hours in the sun.
Castries, Saint Lucia
I think Saint Lucia presented the best vistas of the whole trip. We did an informal tour of the island which stopped at some of the best vistas, a banana plantation, and just about every one of the driver's friends booths. We did pick up some banana ketchup at one of these booths which pretty amazingly tasted like ketchup even though it was yellow in color. This island has exactly one export - bananas. Therefore, they have found a way to make pretty much everything out of bananas. After our little island tour, we hopped on our zipline excursion via boat. A boat took us for about an hour long ride around the other side of the island, which passed the Pitons. The Pitons are two volcanic mountains rising straight of the ocean. My iPhone did not do them justice, they were really cool. After our boat docked we were drive into our zipline to ur and had a great time zooming through the jungle together. The tour was followed up by a stop for rum punch and a beautiful boat ride back to the cruise ship. This was a VERY full and awesome day. The Pitons were my favorite site of the whole trip.
Saint John's, Antigua
We did a 4X4 off road tour on Antigua. We were taken through the rain forest and the back country. Most of the tour was not actual 4X4ing, but the portions that were actually 4X4 touring were pretty insane. There were parts where I felt like I was going to pop right out of seat and bust out the window. It was nuts and super fun! Our tour guide was the veteran of the group and very informative, just my type. We also got to spend a few hours at a beach before heading back to the ship. The beaches here were so great that we promptly decided to travel to a second beach and spent the afternoon sleeping, reading, and relaxing on the breach. A perfect day!
Philipsburg /Saint Maarten
This was probably our favorite stop and a place we talked about taking the boys back to. Saint Maarten is an island that is literally split between two countries, half of the island is controlled by the Dutch and half controlled by the French. The island was clean and had a fun European flare. We booked a kayak and snorkeling trip. We kayaked from a cove to the outskirts of the cove and then beached the kayaks and dove in for some snorkeling. The snorkeling was much more like what we were used to and was exciting for me because I found a spotted stingray, a first for me. I followed him probably for a good five minutes and it was pretty cool. I was slightly shocked that Chris hadn't booked an excursion at Maho Beach where the St. Maarten airport is literally feet away from the beach. Chris has always loved planes so when we booked, I kept asking, are you sure you don't want to go to that beach?!? Well, after snorkeling and some more rum punch, we kept seeing the airplanes arrive and Chris asked when the 747 arrived, knowing that there was only one that landed per day. Sure enough it was scheduled to land one and half hours later and we were only a 2 dollar ride from the beach. So off we went. We had lunch at a little cafe on the beach with a perfect view of all the planes coming in. Even for a non-plane enthusiast, it was actually really cool. Then we saw the KLM 747 come in and it was like something out of a movie. The whole beach stopped when the lights came into view and we all just stood there in awe as this giant plane went right over us. It is rare that I have seen a smile as big as I did on Chris's face when that happened. We found two chairs and promptly parked ourselves for the rest of the afternoon enjoying coronas, dips in the ocean and probably 20 planes that landed. It was awesome! On our way back we did the "cruise thing" and I picked out some earnings for my birthday and Chris picked out a new watch. Now I will always remember this awesome day when I wear my new earnings.
Saint Croix, Virgin Islands
It was bound to happen that we had one day with some rain. Before we left, the forecast for the whole week was a tropical storm so I was surprised that we didn't get any rain until our last day. I guess it was a fitting way to end the trip. We took an open air tour of the island, stopping at the rain forest, and a historic sugar mill. The vistas from the sugar mill were beautiful. We then we explored off downtown for a few hours where we had lunch under cover from the rain and boated over to small resort island. We enjoyed one last round of Caribbean drinks, finished our books and put a cap on a wonderful trip. That night we decided to go the fancy route and eat one of the ship's fine dining restaurants. We had one of the best meals, the food was amazing, and we got to recap a wonderful trip and talk about how excited we were to see the boys. It was just perfect, just like our trip!!
We traveled home without event and I woke up the next morning to these two faces. A pretty amazing trip if I don't say so myself. I have a very grateful heart for getting time alone with Chris, for having the means to travel, for seeing new places, and for having the time to reground myself. Life is good, and we are blessed.
