Southern Caribbean Cruise
Celebrity Cruises
San Juan, PR - St. Thomas - St. Kitts & Nevis - Antigua - St. Lucia - Barbados - Puerto Rico
November 16 - 23, 2019
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| Coming into San Juan, Puerto Rico |
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| We're coming soon ship, don`t leave without us! |
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| Waiting around for the mandatory muster drill in the casino |
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| 1st Group shot from the back bar! Yippee! Happy Sailors welcome aboard! |
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| Our huge "balcony"! 🤣 |
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| Good buddies! |
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| Adventure buddies! |
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| Nice try Craig! |
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| 1st port - St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands |
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| The must have cruise ship name shot |
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| Francine's happy...she was just in a fabric store. Alain, not so much! heehee |
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| My beautiful friend Francine |
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| My other beautiful friend Tanya looks the most excited to try this... I'm just "fake" testing this... I gave mine to Francine!🤣 |
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| This was a beautiful Turkish shop in town, but holy smokes it was expensive! Something that would cost $20 in Turkey cost $200 here! Crazy! |
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| Same shop... love it! So beautiful and colourful. |
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| Craig always likes to try the local beer |
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| Francine! You naughty girl! |
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| Alain's always a trooper to pose for Craig |
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| Lovely view... you can't really tell that it's raining as I take this picture |
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| There's our ship! I like to keep it in sight... make sure they haven't sailed away without us! |
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| Now that's good service! It's a first. I've never seen them come in the ocean to serve a drink! |
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| Mega ships... small cities |
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| Shawn & Tanya were on their own excursion here... I think it was a rum factory tour. |
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Francine was really looking forward to this stop with the famous cotton prints. From their website I later learned;
"Caribelle Batik has acquired an international reputation for fine batik products made of quality fabrics including the exclusive sea island cotton. Using ancient Indonesian methods, Caribelle produced its first batik in 1976. Caribelle has since become the Caribbean’s most sought after batik textiles. In addition to their eye catching attributes, these products are durable and last a lifetime.
Many of our products are produced right here at Romney Manor. Caribelle Batik employs a full time local staff of 36, each one dedicated to providing unique products and a memorable visitor experience. During a visit, you can watch as our artists expertly demonstrate batik techniques and provide a full narration of the ancient art form and its history. Then you can browse our bright and colorful shop where no two pieces are exactly alike".
https://www.caribellebatikstkitts.com/ |
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| Romney Manor grounds |
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| Kitty cat for you A.J. |
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This was a lady showing how they make Batik prints using wax. While I appreciated seeing how it's made, I was left wishing they could somehow show the technique better, but I suppose they have so many tourist coming through here that they have to do a quick presentation and move people along. They also have to say it over and over all day. It looks like a very time consuming and tedious process.
Batik is a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to whole cloth. This technique originated from Java, in Indonesia. Batik is made either by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a spouted tool called a tjanting, or by printing the resist with a copper stamp called a cap. The applied wax resists dyes and therefore allows the artisan to colour selectively by soaking the cloth in one colour, removing the wax with boiling water, and repeating if multiple colours are desired. |
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| This shows some wax applied to the fabric pattern before it's dyed. |
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| Beautiful Batik fabric drying on the line |
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| I think she bought some of this pattern |
Moving along on the tour...
Antigua
With our onboard credit we booked Celebrity's "Scenic Antigua and Beach Tour"
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| Lovely lookout area named like our dear friend Shirly (without an "e") from Moscow |
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| Incredible views from Shirley's lookout |
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| Gorgeous shot! Gorgeous couple! |
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| We needed a taller photographer! lol |
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| I see a smirk Shawn! Don't try to hide that smile that's dying to come out! 🤭 |
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| Ahhh, sweet! |
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| Look at us 3 sitting so proper! |
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| Ahhh... soaking up the glorious Caribbean sun! |
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| Sexy Eddie (our driver) was wonderful |
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| It was nice here, but honestly I could have skipped this stop |
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| We always like to check out ads for property in other countries. Antigua was quite expensive |
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| You're so cute Alain! |
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| Craig loves throwing a ball when he's in water |
And on we go to Saint Lucia...
through the cruise ship Craig arranged for a tour via realstluciatours.com
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| I think Alain is inspired to move here... |
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| Government House - official residence of the Governor-General of Saint Lucia (opened 1895) |
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| When the tour said we'd be stopping at a "banana plantation" I had higher expectations of an actual building of some sort. Instead we just stopped at the side of the road, had a little lesson on banana trees and how they grow and then bought some things at the tiny shop and off we went. Did you know... the blue bags are a source of protection for the bananas from wind, insects, sun, birds, etc.? The plant takes about 9 months to grow up and produce the fruit then once the bananas are harvested the plant dies. They usually produce shoots from the "rhizome" for about 6 years. Suckers grow from around the base of the parent plant. These suckers can be removed and transplanted to grown new banana trees and one or two can be left to grow in place of the parent plant for the 9 month cycle to start all over again. |
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| Here he is explaining the cycle of the banana tree plant. For the life of me I cannot remember his name. His energy was very laid back, but he was a good guide. |
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| Oh Craig... you're such a boy! |
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| Sampling "banana bbq sauce" and "banana ketchup". It's actually quite good! |
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| And, of course, we had to sample the bananas. So yummy fresh! |
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| We stopped for a quick visit of this little church and were accosted by this man claiming to be a priest... it was kind of comical because he SO was not. He was a local and a real character. |
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| The Piton Mountains. The taller of the 2 is 798.25m high and the smaller one is 743m high. They're located near the town of Soufriere and are a beautiful backdrop to this picturesque area. |
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| Another kitten for you AJ! |
Next up on our island tour are the sulphur springs of Soufriere. It is a volcano that last erupted over 200 years ago (thankfully). It is considered dormant unlike the nearby Soufriere Hills volcano located on the island of Montserrat. The mud baths are said to detoxify the body and help heal sun burns, eczema, arthritis, sore joints and more. The mud pools were REALLY hot and get slightly cooler as you move down the various pools. After getting all muddy we went to a nearby waterfall to wash off (after taking some pictures of course).
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| You can tell it's going to be hot by the steam |
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| View of the pools from above |
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| We had to let the mud dry a bit before drawing on ourselves with the contrasting colour mud. Normally I do not do online bathing suit photos, but had to make an exception for these photos |
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| Why I was spreading my feet apart for this task I do not know... it's not like he was going to draw on my inner thighs! lol This bathing suit had to be retired after the cruise. It's all stretched out. 😒 |
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| Do you feel younger yet Alain? It's supposed to make you look 10 years younger... did it work? |
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| Time for washy washy |
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| You have a person growing out of your belly Craig! |
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| That's as close as Francine would get to the waterfall. She just washed off in the pool. |
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| In Alain went... that's a lot of pressure on your head, but you look at peace in there! |
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| Unlike me, not looking so relaxed... it was cold! |
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| Had to hold the top of my bathing suit or everyone would have got a show! Craig was attempting to pick me up for the shot, but we didn't quite capture it! lol |
After the waterfall we were able to chill at the beach for a while. This trip we spent a lot of time in the ocean, which was awesome. Our guide stopped a local house for our lunch which we enjoyed on the beach.
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| It was a lot of food and pretty tasty |
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| Beautiful backdrop on the beach of the Pitons |
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| "Everyone put your hands in the air" Craig says... easier said than done says I. |
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| Alain posing for me... |
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| These are the kind of roads you missed driving on Tanya. I couldn't quite capture the twistiness for you |
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| There's a large watch for you Craig! ⌚ |
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| Fish anyone??? |
| Bridgetown, Barbados | | Celebrity excursion "Coast to Coast Scenic Drive" |
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| You're a brat Alain, but we love ya! |
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| Step a little to the left... a little more... now roll down the hill!🙄 |
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| "Francine, come pose over here for me" Craig says... not telling her about the giant bee! Look at the size of that thing! It's almost the size of a humming bird! |
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| Beautiful Bathsheba Beach along the way |
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| Alain just had to go in despite the tour guide's warning about the strong undertow |
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| Save me buddy!! |
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| He saved him. |
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| There were some stupid people on our tour who kept us all waiting to go swimming (they were specifically told not to). |
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| The Emancipation bronze statue symbolizing the "breaking of chains" of slavery at Emancipation. Many locals refer to the statue as "Bussa", the name of the slave who helped inspire a revolt against slavery in Barbados in 1816. |
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| This ship is so cute! 👄 |
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| We did a galley tour of the cruise ship. Our head chef is quite the comedian! |
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| Going down into the kitchen... |
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| It's a smooth operation down here... everyone has their job as they prepare thousands and thousands of meals every day |
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| Hmm... freshly made bread sticks for dinner! |
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| The dessert tray... quick, you distract her! |
Back in San Juan, Puerto Rico...
Shawn & Tanya hadn't toured the fort before (the 4 of us did last cruise out of San Juan), so they headed off to do that while we hung around outside the fort
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| It's such a gorgeous area here |
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| Watch out Craig! He's coming for ya! |
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| Final resting place with a view |
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| Birds... not my favorite creatures |
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| The bird whisperer 🐦 |
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| You can be a bird man in the park for retirement! |
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| In Old San Juan stands the narrowest building in the world at just 64" wide! It used to be a passage way, but was converted into a house. I believe our guide said it's owned by the red house owners and they thought it would be a good tourist spot, but now it's just used as storage because it didn't catch on |
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| You two are goofballs! |
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| The gang ... it's nearly time to head back to Canada... back to reality and cold weather |
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| This is where our guide brought us for lunch! |
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| Doesn't get much more authentic than that! You too Shawn! 😼 |
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| This was our guide from the cruise port. We had several hours to kill before we needed to head to the airport, so rather than just hire a taxi to get all 6 of us there really early we decided on a private tour of some key areas of San Juan and it included drop off to the airport and we didn't have to worry about our bags. He was awesome, I'd recommend him! |
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Lots of laughs, had a great time with our good friends we met in Moscow. The forever-kind-of-friends! Thanks guys for a fantastic vacation! Cheers to many more together. 💗
