TRAVEL REPORT
by Diane Putnam
REPORT ON Caribbean Cruise. January 21st to February 5th.
Saturday the 21st saw us departing from Heathrow to Miami. Others in our party went via Madrid. The cruise proper didn’t start until Sunday afternoon so in the morning we opted to go on an Everglades safari on an airboat, and learned how to differentiate between alligators and crocodiles during this exhilarating ride.
We boarded the ship in the afternoon, and spent some time exploring the amenities. It is a large ship and holds 2400 people, has 1200 staff, 10 restaurants, numerous bars and lounges, pools and hot tubs and many leisure areas.
The first week we toured the western Caribbean. We cruised on the Monday, and on Tuesday we arrived at Roatan Bay Islands, about 35 miles from mainland Honduras. We felt quite at home here as the people there speak Spanish. We explored this fairly undeveloped island on foot, and there were shops selling good value wooden gifts. There are no traffic lights on this island of 45000 people.
On Wednesday morning we found ourselves at Georgetown in Grand Cayman. This island was in stark relief to the previous day. Many banks and expensive houses, and English being spoken too. We went on a short coach tour to get a better flavour of the place.
By Thursday morning we had arrived at Ocho Rios in Jamaica. Here we went to climb the Dunn’s River Falls, which is the island’s premier attraction. Warning. You will get absolutely drenched doing this climb! The guides led us up, while the less intrepid walked up the staircase at the side. In the afternoon we went for a swim with dolphins. We were split into groups of eight people, and allocated an instructor and a dolphin. I don’t know if we scared our dolphin but he seemed a bit shy of coming too close to us.
On Saturday we arrived at Nassau in the Bahamas. This is a main shopping centre with some gorgeous beaches, and they drive on the left!
We arrived back at Miami on the Sunday, and due to American Customs and Immigration we all had to disembark, (they used the word debarkation?) and then re-board the ship.
Week 2 we set off for the eastern Caribbean. First stop was San Juan in Puerto Rico. This island is surrounded by Puerto Rican Trench, the deepest in the Caribbean, with a depth of a mind boggling 28000 feet. There are two massive fortifications, to protect this then Spanish island from potential European raiders.
Our next stop was St John’s in Antigua. As there are 365 beaches on this island you are never short of a place to sunbathe and swim. We took a taxi to Nelson’s dockyard with beautiful yachts, Shirley Heights with its spectacular views, and then on to have a swim on a fabulous beach. Heaven.
Our next destination was St Thomas, in the American Virgin Islands. We went walking into the shopping area and the market in the morning. I can’t recall that we bought anything there, though. It was here that we decided to go on the Atlantis Submarine for a look to see what was beneath the waves. We went down to about 75 feet and saw a myriad of corals and fishes. The bonus of this trip was that we had a boat ride out to where the submarine was, and had a tour of the amazing coastline as we went and returned.
Our last stop was at Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas. This is owned the NCL, the cruise line. We should have gone here the week too before but earlier bad weather meant the ship could not anchor. As 1700 of the ship’s holidaymakers decided to go to the beach here we decided to have a nice peaceful time on the ship for a few hours.
I have only described some of the things we did. Others would have very different stories to tell of their holiday. It was as lively or as quiet as you wanted it to be. Every island we visited we could swim, snorkel, visit beautiful beaches, tour the island, and meet very hospitable and friendly people willing to help us really enjoy our holiday.
The following are a selection of photos of the cruise which were taken by Shirley Cuesta.
Please click on the thumbnails to view the photographs.
To view the rest of the reports, return to Travel Reports
Return to 