Puerto Rico and Southern Caribbean Cruise - Day 5 - St. Kitts
St. Kitts
This day didn't turn out quite like we expected. Usually I try to book a variety of durations of excursions on our cruises, making sure that every day isn't a marathon all-day tour. Since the day before in Tortola was an all day excursion, I booked an easy half day excursion for St. Kitts. Or so I thought...
Let me back up a bit. I woke up at 7 AM, tossed on my running clothes and went up to deck 4 for what I hoped were full laps around the deck before they closed the forward section for mooring operations. The all ashore time was 8:30 so I thought I was early enough, but when I arrived on deck 4, I saw a couple of runners coming in the wrong direction so I knew right away it must be closed. So I started my U-shaped run with everyone else, being careful in the narrow sections to look for runners and walkers going in the opposite direction. I completed my run and did a few sets up pushups on the deck before I went back to the room and showered before we all went to Cabana's for breakfast.
Our meeting time for the tour was 9:30 AM so we disembarked at 9:15 so as to be on time. We found the meeting spot for our tour and were given wrist bands and a little after that another family from DCL showed up. The tour operator told us they were waiting for a few more people from another ship that was just docking, I think it was a Carnival ship. He said it would be about 9:45 for our departure. I should have said something right then because that ship was just coming in and still needed to tie down and get cleared by the port authority. But I wasn't thinking about it.
So we did a little shopping and paid a guy way too much money so that Emmaline could have monkeys crawl all over her for about 30 seconds. We checked back in at 9:45 but they said to wait some more so we waited and found some free (but sloooooow) wi-fi so we could check in with family. At 10:00 I went to ask them what the deal was and they said that they were still waiting on the other ship, that it had been late and it was beyond their control. We kept waiting and at 10:15 another couple arrived. I asked them if they knew why the ship was late. They said it wasn't late. Uh. Okay? I asked them what time their tour was supposed to be and they said, "Oh, I dunno, just whenever we got here." Okaaaaay. So we waited some more. And some more. I went back over to the tour guide and said that we really didn't feel like we should wait much longer, that the ship had been docked for quite awhile. He said he had a lot of people on the tour from that ship that weren't there, but he finally said that he would cut it off at 11:00 and not wait any longer. We were all sort of tired and out of sorts and I was annoyed that it was supposed to be a 4 hour tour that started at 9:30. Now it's 11:00 and I wasn't even sure what "lunch" was going to look like at this point because I had pictured being back by 1:30.
Nobody else showed up and we finally boarded the small air conditioned tour bus with three other families and were off. First we drove a little around Basseterre and learned a little about some of the history of the area. St. Kitts and its sister island of Nevis together make up one nation that gained their independence from Great Britain in 1983. They were colonized at various times by the Spanish, French, and British and the island was primarily a source of sugarcane.
Our first stop was to visit the Wingfield Estate. These ruins consist of an abandoned sugar factory and rum distillery where there are excavations ongoing to unearth the various parts of the property. We walked around and our guide told us about the lives of the slaves who worked there and how sugar was processed and the rum was created. The property was interesting the rainforest right next to the ruins was lush and beautiful.
We left Wingfield and next stopped at Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor where we got to see a batik demonstration and walk the grounds. To be honest, I could have skipped this stop. We were there longer than we really needed to be and it was mostly a large gift shop of items made from batik fabric.
Our next stop was the Brimstone Hill Fortress. This well-preserved fortress was built the British (well, no, not really, slaves built it for the British) while they had control of the island. It's impressive in scale and setting and the views of the island from the top of the hill were amazing. We spent quite a bit of time there and actually could have spent more. In all honesty, I could have just had a great excursion going only to the fortress and been perfectly happy with our day.
By this point, it was getting later on in the day and we were hungry and tired and done and I was still a little annoyed that we started our tour an hour and a half late. But we had a couple more stops. First, we stopped at the black rocks and took some photos there. It was pretty to see the volcanic rock formations in the ocean (but I would have been okay skipping) and then we headed to the south of the island atop a hill where you can see the Atlantic Ocean on the left and the Caribbean Sea to the right. It was a breathtaking view and I have to say, that was actually worth a stop.
By the time we made it back to the ship, it was around 3:45. So not only did our tour leave an hour and a half late, but instead of being a four hour tour, it was nearly 5 hours. Overall, it was a good tour, but it would have been a great tour if it had been shorter (like 3 hours) and had started on time.
We dropped our stuff off in the room and went up to deck 9 to find "lunch" since Cabana's was long since closed at that point. Roger had a burger from Pete's, I had a surprisingly good caprese panini from Daisy's and Emmaline had some fruit and a chocolate chip cookie from Daisy's. I think we all shared some fries Roger had also gotten from Pete's.
After lunch, we went back to the room to freshen up and regroup and after a bit, Emmaline went to the kids club while Roger and I relaxed in the room before it was time for the show.
I grabbed Emmaline from the club at 6:00, we refilled the popcorn bucket and went into the Walt Disney Theatre to enjoy the illusions of David Gatti. He's actually one of the better illusionists I've seen on DCL and I really enjoyed his show quite a bit. Roger found it a little disjointed because he had segments where he was dramatic with music, other segments with audience members and others that were humorous. Personally, I liked the variety and didn't mind the different styles.
After the show, we got all our pirate costumes on and went down to have photos taken and then we went to Shutters to look at our photos from the cruise so far. Then at 8:15 we went to Animator's Palate for Pirate Night dinner. Pirate Night in Animator's was so great because they could use the screens for some super fun renderings, sketches and other various works of art from different pirate themed rides and shows from Disney. I would definitely prefer to be in Animator's on Pirate Night in the future!
After dinner, Emmaline went her friend from our table to get something from her room (or drop something off, I'm not sure) and Roger and I made our way to deck 10 to watch the show and fireworks. We arranged to meet back up with Emmaline across from the ice cream machines on deck 9. The pirate show was the same one we've seen before, but still fun. There was one dad who really hammed it up for the "heavy metal pirates take over and do air guitar" bit (yes, this is really a thing). There's always at least one dad that goes nuts and makes the whole thing awesome. The fireworks were great, too. Disney knows how to do fireworks, even at sea. After the fireworks, we met up with Emmaline and checked out the pirate buffet which was really crowded. We grabbed some fruit and maybe a cookie, but we were still full from dinner so we were pretty half-hearted about the whole affair.
We went back to our room and rolled ourselves into bed. It was a long day and we were all super ready for a day at sea the next day.
Click here for Day 6.
This day didn't turn out quite like we expected. Usually I try to book a variety of durations of excursions on our cruises, making sure that every day isn't a marathon all-day tour. Since the day before in Tortola was an all day excursion, I booked an easy half day excursion for St. Kitts. Or so I thought...
Let me back up a bit. I woke up at 7 AM, tossed on my running clothes and went up to deck 4 for what I hoped were full laps around the deck before they closed the forward section for mooring operations. The all ashore time was 8:30 so I thought I was early enough, but when I arrived on deck 4, I saw a couple of runners coming in the wrong direction so I knew right away it must be closed. So I started my U-shaped run with everyone else, being careful in the narrow sections to look for runners and walkers going in the opposite direction. I completed my run and did a few sets up pushups on the deck before I went back to the room and showered before we all went to Cabana's for breakfast.
Our meeting time for the tour was 9:30 AM so we disembarked at 9:15 so as to be on time. We found the meeting spot for our tour and were given wrist bands and a little after that another family from DCL showed up. The tour operator told us they were waiting for a few more people from another ship that was just docking, I think it was a Carnival ship. He said it would be about 9:45 for our departure. I should have said something right then because that ship was just coming in and still needed to tie down and get cleared by the port authority. But I wasn't thinking about it.
So we did a little shopping and paid a guy way too much money so that Emmaline could have monkeys crawl all over her for about 30 seconds. We checked back in at 9:45 but they said to wait some more so we waited and found some free (but sloooooow) wi-fi so we could check in with family. At 10:00 I went to ask them what the deal was and they said that they were still waiting on the other ship, that it had been late and it was beyond their control. We kept waiting and at 10:15 another couple arrived. I asked them if they knew why the ship was late. They said it wasn't late. Uh. Okay? I asked them what time their tour was supposed to be and they said, "Oh, I dunno, just whenever we got here." Okaaaaay. So we waited some more. And some more. I went back over to the tour guide and said that we really didn't feel like we should wait much longer, that the ship had been docked for quite awhile. He said he had a lot of people on the tour from that ship that weren't there, but he finally said that he would cut it off at 11:00 and not wait any longer. We were all sort of tired and out of sorts and I was annoyed that it was supposed to be a 4 hour tour that started at 9:30. Now it's 11:00 and I wasn't even sure what "lunch" was going to look like at this point because I had pictured being back by 1:30.
Nobody else showed up and we finally boarded the small air conditioned tour bus with three other families and were off. First we drove a little around Basseterre and learned a little about some of the history of the area. St. Kitts and its sister island of Nevis together make up one nation that gained their independence from Great Britain in 1983. They were colonized at various times by the Spanish, French, and British and the island was primarily a source of sugarcane.
Our first stop was to visit the Wingfield Estate. These ruins consist of an abandoned sugar factory and rum distillery where there are excavations ongoing to unearth the various parts of the property. We walked around and our guide told us about the lives of the slaves who worked there and how sugar was processed and the rum was created. The property was interesting the rainforest right next to the ruins was lush and beautiful.
We left Wingfield and next stopped at Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor where we got to see a batik demonstration and walk the grounds. To be honest, I could have skipped this stop. We were there longer than we really needed to be and it was mostly a large gift shop of items made from batik fabric.
Our next stop was the Brimstone Hill Fortress. This well-preserved fortress was built the British (well, no, not really, slaves built it for the British) while they had control of the island. It's impressive in scale and setting and the views of the island from the top of the hill were amazing. We spent quite a bit of time there and actually could have spent more. In all honesty, I could have just had a great excursion going only to the fortress and been perfectly happy with our day.
By this point, it was getting later on in the day and we were hungry and tired and done and I was still a little annoyed that we started our tour an hour and a half late. But we had a couple more stops. First, we stopped at the black rocks and took some photos there. It was pretty to see the volcanic rock formations in the ocean (but I would have been okay skipping) and then we headed to the south of the island atop a hill where you can see the Atlantic Ocean on the left and the Caribbean Sea to the right. It was a breathtaking view and I have to say, that was actually worth a stop.
By the time we made it back to the ship, it was around 3:45. So not only did our tour leave an hour and a half late, but instead of being a four hour tour, it was nearly 5 hours. Overall, it was a good tour, but it would have been a great tour if it had been shorter (like 3 hours) and had started on time.
We dropped our stuff off in the room and went up to deck 9 to find "lunch" since Cabana's was long since closed at that point. Roger had a burger from Pete's, I had a surprisingly good caprese panini from Daisy's and Emmaline had some fruit and a chocolate chip cookie from Daisy's. I think we all shared some fries Roger had also gotten from Pete's.
After lunch, we went back to the room to freshen up and regroup and after a bit, Emmaline went to the kids club while Roger and I relaxed in the room before it was time for the show.
I grabbed Emmaline from the club at 6:00, we refilled the popcorn bucket and went into the Walt Disney Theatre to enjoy the illusions of David Gatti. He's actually one of the better illusionists I've seen on DCL and I really enjoyed his show quite a bit. Roger found it a little disjointed because he had segments where he was dramatic with music, other segments with audience members and others that were humorous. Personally, I liked the variety and didn't mind the different styles.
After the show, we got all our pirate costumes on and went down to have photos taken and then we went to Shutters to look at our photos from the cruise so far. Then at 8:15 we went to Animator's Palate for Pirate Night dinner. Pirate Night in Animator's was so great because they could use the screens for some super fun renderings, sketches and other various works of art from different pirate themed rides and shows from Disney. I would definitely prefer to be in Animator's on Pirate Night in the future!
After dinner, Emmaline went her friend from our table to get something from her room (or drop something off, I'm not sure) and Roger and I made our way to deck 10 to watch the show and fireworks. We arranged to meet back up with Emmaline across from the ice cream machines on deck 9. The pirate show was the same one we've seen before, but still fun. There was one dad who really hammed it up for the "heavy metal pirates take over and do air guitar" bit (yes, this is really a thing). There's always at least one dad that goes nuts and makes the whole thing awesome. The fireworks were great, too. Disney knows how to do fireworks, even at sea. After the fireworks, we met up with Emmaline and checked out the pirate buffet which was really crowded. We grabbed some fruit and maybe a cookie, but we were still full from dinner so we were pretty half-hearted about the whole affair.
We went back to our room and rolled ourselves into bed. It was a long day and we were all super ready for a day at sea the next day.
Click here for Day 6.
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