Southern Caribbean Cruise
We went on a Southern Caribbean Cruise in March. This was my first cruise, and will definitely not be my last. I got sea sick, it was worse when I was at the back of the ship, especially in the dining room. But thanks to ginger tea and caramelized ginger, I did not throw up. Also, because we sailed out of San Juan, the sea was a lot calmer; that helped tremendously with my motion sickness too. Plus, we had only 1 sea day at the beginning. We visited a new port every day. Gotta love that!
I was surprised at how big the ship was. And it wasn’t even the biggest cruise ship. Oasis of the Seas would be so much bigger. To minimize motion sickness, I was advised to get an inside cabin, as close to the center of the ship as possible. The cabin was small, but very functional. Every thing was designed with a purpose in mind. The bathroom was adequate for 2 people. I didn’t feel trapped at all.
I was amazed at how efficient the ship crews were. There were 1,600+ staff members to support more than 3,200 guests. The cabins were cleaned twice a day. Each evening, we got a new bucket of ice and entertainment schedule for the next day. On the exchange day (last day/first day of the cruise), the ship had to feed and unloaded 3,200+ people and their luggage by 11:00am. Then cleaned all the rooms, sanitized, made and served lunch, boarded another 3,200+ people, AND delivered their bags to the right rooms by 2:00pm! Every night, the kitchen prepared more than 10,000 meals all together. Yet, our dinners in the main dining room always arrived promptly and hot. Our waiter overheard us talking about one of our favorite food one day. From that day on, every single night without failing, he brought a small plate of that food prepared differently just for us. And he always brought out all the desserts they had to offer on that particular night for us to try. The service was top notch, attentive but not over bearing. The staff worked very hard, but they always greeted us with a smile.
For each meal, we had the choice of room service, 3 restaurants, main dining room and the buffet to choose from. The buffets offered plenty of choices, even the pickiest person could find something to eat here. Besides the stables - pizzas, spaghetti, hamburgers, sandwiches, fries, sushi, rice, salads, soups and fresh fruits - the buffet menus changed every day. Besides room service, there was also a café that offered food, drinks & snacks 24/7. You would never go hungry or run out of things to eat on the cruise.
The food quality, the variety, the service, couldn’t really complain. Oh and the desserts, absolutely amazing! Thuan doesn’t like sweets in general, but he loved desserts on the cruise. We had the best flan and mango mousse on this trip. The food on the cruise was definitely better than all other all-inclusives we’ve been to. And nightly entertainment was definitely better. Although I was told that it wasn’t as good as before, but to first time cruisers like me, it was great. I love cruising. It’s like a mobile all inclusive. You get to visit many destinations, but only have to unpack once. Our next one will be to Europe.
Out of the islands that we’ve been to on this trip, Antigua & St. Maarten/St. Martin were our favorites.
Barbados We took the taxi on our own to downtown, then to Brighton Beach. Unlike advertisement, downtown Barbados was kind of run down, nothing like London. Brighton Beach was un-crowded, beautiful water and sand. We then decided to walk back to our cruise ship, not realized how far it was. It was quite a walk, took us an hr and fifteen minute. Thuan wanted to take the taxi half way through, but I insisted that we walked (so that we could eat more when we got back to the ship!)
St. Lucia We booked Harrod’s private tour “Land & Sea Safari” to twin peaks of the Pitons, Marigot Bay, La Soufriere waterfalls, Botanical Garden, Drive-In Volcano, and Jalousie beach. St. Lucia’s main export is bananas, which are smaller, but sweeter than bananas we can buy from the States. Harrod also got us fresh coconuts along the way. We had a quick refreshing (read COLD!) during our short stop at the waterfalls. I wanted to go to the mud bath, but we didn’t have time for that. The drive-in volcano was interesting; steams of sulfur were of course smelly, but not unbearable. We had a delicious home-cooked meal at Harrod’s parents’ house, completed with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. The grapefruits were from their garden. I also got to try banana ketchup, which was very interesting. After lunch, we took a speed boat to Jalousie beach, which is nestled between the famous twin peaks. I really looked forward to that, but it turned out to be such a disappointment. The beach and the ocean floor were full of rocks and coral pieces, which was painful to walk on. The white sand here was imported to make the beach more appealing to tourists. We learned that most beaches in St. Lucia have black volcanic sand (including the famous and most expensive Jade Mountain resort beach). The boat then took us back to our ship. We got to see St. Lucia both from land (very windy roads) and sea, at half the cost of RCL.
Antigua Antigua is known for their beautiful beaches. If you go to a beach a day here, it will take you more than a year to visit all the beaches in Antigua. We really loved it here, clear turquoise water, white sand beaches, perfect weather. We did the kayak tour with RCL, using Paddle’s. We paddled in the beautiful mangroves. Then boarded a speed boat to Great Bird Island. The view from the top of Great Bird Island was amazing. We did some snorkeling, but didn’t see much fish. Before we left Paddles, the host served us home-made punch and delicious banana bread, which was her mother-in-law’s recipe.
St. Maarten/St. Martin Per local tourism center, we went to a beach near Orient Beach (I forgot the name). There were definitely lots of locals there. But it was not any where near beautiful as Orient Beach. The water was calm, clear, but not blue. Also, there were lots of twigs and other debris in the sand. So we went back to Orient Beach for the rest of the day.
Orient Beach has a nude section. We saw WAY more than we liked to…but the beach was beautiful with fine white sand and crystal blue water. You can easily get a taxi from the port to this beach. All fares are regulated and posted. However, if you share the taxi with others, you can cut the costs dramatically.
Beautiful sunshine. White sand. Crystal clear, turquoise warm water. What more can you ask for?
St. Croix Again, we made the mistake of listening to locals…The beach that came highly recommended by them was such a disappointment. So we asked the taxi driver if she could take us to Carambola Beach (at Rockefeller Resort) instead. And she did, for no extra charge. Carambola Beach & the resort itself were beautiful. The waves were rougher than other places we’d been to on this trip, but nothing compared to Virginia Beach! I had the best virgin mango colada here. Again, by doing this on our own, we saved more than $100. RCL has the same tour for $89pp, bringing people to this exact resort.
Vieques, Puerto Rico
Our vacation began with an early morning flight to San Juan in March. Once we arrived in San Juan airport, our first impression of Puerto Rican was that they did not like us…Were we being obnoxious Americans? No, I don’t think so. We tried to say “hi” and “thank you” in Spanish. We apologized for not being able to speak Spanish before speaking English to them. In the restaurants, we patiently waited for our food with a smile on our face, even when we were starving! I’m a very patient person in general, and I’m all for What’s-the-rush?-You’re-on-vacation! mentality, but come on, how could a fast food place take more than 25 minutes to make an order of fried chicken?? Anyways, besides the people working for the airlines, the rest were not very nice to us. Indeed, they were rather rude. And that impression stayed with us the whole time during our stay in Vieques & Old San Juan. What a shame.
Vieques is an island in northeastern Caribbean, about 8 miles from Puerto Rican mainland. It was voted as the most beautiful Caribbean island by Travel magazine for 2 years in a roll. I’m glad we got a chance to visit Vieques, but will not come back there.
Looking back at recent Vieques history, it’s easy to understand why most locals here don’t like Americans. United States Navy used this island as a bombing range and testing ground. There was a series of protests which eventually led to the Navy’s departure in 2003.
Our flight between SJU and Vieques airport was via Cape Air. Vieques airport was tiny, with only 1 SMALL carousel. The check-in agent was also the baggage transporter, AND plane controller! Due to the size of Vieques airport, the plane was extremely small, with only 9 passengers, 1 pilot and no flight attendant. Checked in luggage were stored in the front of the plane, carry-ons were kept in the wings, and passengers were required to inform the airline their weight, so that weight could be evenly distributed on the plane. And I got to be the co-pilot! Our plane, pilot and the baggage transporter:
We stayed at Villa Coral Guesthouse.
The house is about 10-15 minute walk from Le Malecon (picture below) in Esperanza, one of the main towns in Vieques.
The room was basic, not as nice as the exterior of the house. I got grossed out about the flies and stained towels. Even with all windows closed, the flies managed to get inside the room. They were attracted to the lights we left on in the bathroom.
Vieques was very much like Vietnam, with colorful houses and narrow streets. Free range horses and chickens could be seen every where you go.
The beaches were beautiful, the water was crystal clear, and the weather was perfect. But we found the food disappointing and expensive (stir-fried vegetables and rice from a street vendor cost $8). We tried Chicken King, Richard’s Café, Duffy’s, Bili & some street vendors. One of Puerto Rican authentic dish was chilled conch mixed with mashed yucca, which was so fishy that we couldn’t handle more than one bite. There were also fried chicken, rotisserie chicken, yucca, plantain, and rice & beans. Chicken King was like a very bad KFC. Richard’s Café was horrible. We had the best fish tacos at Duffy’s. Conch salad was ok. Our best meal on the island was at Bili. Tasty fish fritters (mahi mahi) arrived at the table piping hot. Brie and chicken turnovers were delicious.
We visited Sun Bay, Playa Caracas Red Beach, Pata Prieta Secret Beach & Bahia De La Chiva Blue Beach. You definitely need a car to visit the beautiful beaches in the National Refuge Area, for the roads are unpaved, and most public transportation do not go there. These beaches are commonly listed among the top beaches in the Caribbean for their azure-colored waters and white sands. But that alone wasn’t the main reason why we were going to Vieques. I wanted to go to Vieques for the famous bioluminescent bay. And it was an experience to have.
Vieques Bioluminescent Mosquito Bay is arguably the largest and brightest bioluminescent spot in the world. The luminescence is caused by micro-organisms (dinoflagellates) which glow whenever the water is disturbed, leaving a trail of neon blue. A combination of factors creates the necessary conditions for bioluminescence: red mangrove trees surround the water (the organisms feed off the dead leaves); a complete lack of modern development around the bay; the water is cool enough and deep enough; and a small channel to the ocean keeps the dinoflagellates in the bay.
We kayaked into the bay at night. The water lit up with each stroke of our paddles. As we moved through the bay, the whole bottom of our kayak glowed. Then we jumped in and swam, our whole bodies glowed in the dark. Each time we moved our arms up from the water, it looked like thousands of twinkling stars fell from our arms into the water. Then, it rained. As the raindrops hit the water, the whole bay lit up. It was magical.