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Our Port Days in 6 Southern Caribbean Ports
For upcoming Southern Caribbean cruisers and archives researchers, here's an
overview of our December 2005 port days in Princess Cays, St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, Isla Margarita and Curacao. We're into fun-in-the-sun activities, so if shopping's your primary interest, you may want to skip to the brief mention of shopping in Barbados and Isla Margarita and move on! People often ask, "What's the weather like in December?" We've been in the Caribbean for 6 holiday cruises, and the weather's always been great, with daytime temps in the 70's and 80's and very infrequent showers. Princess Cays: 9a-3:15p Anchor & short tender transfer - This is Princess' private beach on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. We were very impressed! It's a remarkably beautiful tropical beach setting and covers a surprisingly large geographic area. Be sure you pick up the map before disembarking so you can find the scattered sections of beach chairs (free and plentiful, some under palapas-no "chair hog" problems here), hammocks, water toys, restrooms, bars, shops, live music and lunch buffet. Although you can rent "on the spot," to insure availability, it's advisable to pre-reserve online or at the Shore Excursions desk if you want to rent a cabana for the day, take a banana boat ride or Hobie Cat lesson, etc. Snorkeling equipment is available, but this isn't a great site for underwater life. The water is shallow for a long way out and relatively free of vegetation. The sand is like sugar. Princess does a super job of keeping this place clean and well-maintained. St. Thomas: 7:30a-5:30p Docked at Havensight Mall - After this, our family's 4th stop in St. Thomas, we've vowed we'll make the trek to St. John every time from now on. We tried Magens Bay this trip and Sapphire Beach last time, and I'm embarrassed to not gush about two of the most beautiful beaches in the world, but we were under whelmed as compared to St. John. For our personal tastes, any beach on St. John is better for raw beauty, quality snorkeling and that "less developed" feel you get from being in a national park. But this is just minor quibbling; there are no bad choices in the USVI. Kudos to Princess for the efficient immigration process that is required of all cruise ship passengers before disembarking in St. Thomas. Use that early appointment as a motivator to get up, groom and eat breakfast before or right after immigration--then sail through immigration and off the ship. We were at Magens before 9:30a with about 20 total other souls. It was divine until about 1:30p, when the crowds of cruise ship pax had descended. No prob, after 4 hours of beach time w/ no snorkeling to keep us interested, we were ready to go. Magens Bay costs $3 pp (it's a public park), and does have beautiful, shallow waters and fine, clean sand. There are chairs, floats, kayaks, Sun Fish and other water toys for rent, a snack shack, clean dressing room/showers, and beach waiters. There's limited shade--another reason to get there early to claim your tree. Dominica: 9a-5:30p Docked at Roseau downtown pier - This was our first visit to Dominica, a "green island" featuring mountains, rain forests and waterfalls. The Morne Trois Pitons National Park that covers much of the small island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There aren't many beaches here, but several recommended boat dives and snorkeling excursions. We chose hiking and waterfalls and hired a private van for our party of 4 at the pier ($35 pp for the day) to take us to Emerald Pool, Trafalgar Falls and spots in between. It was a loooong day of driving up and down narrow and bumpy mountain roads-in hindsight, we would have been happier had we gone to just Trafalgar Falls, a 20-minute drive from Roseau, and perhaps followed that with a snorkeling trip. Emerald Pool is at the base of a waterfall and receives the most tourist traffic because it's a fairly easy walk (except for folks in chairs or with ambulatory problems). You can swim in the pool-it's brisk and refreshing! Trafalgar Falls refers to twin waterfalls, one large cold waterfall and a second hot spring fall. There is a viewing platform where most visitors stop. The more adventurous can hike up from the platform to a small hot springs pool-a great place for a natural hot tub soak-and further up over large, slime-covered boulders to the pool under the icy fall-another invigorating splash! That climb is a potentially dangerous, but very doable exercise for active adventure lovers. You will be swarmed by guides when you arrive at the site that, for $8 per person, will help you choose the most "climbable" path-they cursed our refusal of help and predicted grievous harm would befall us, which was par for our reception in Dominica. Although our driver was pleasant enough, the free lance day trip operators working the port and food and crafts vendors everywhere were obnoxiously aggressive. This is an extremely poor island-we would've been more inclined to boost the local economy had the locals dropped the "in your face" approach. To avoid the unpleasant job of negotiating with driver/guides at the port, I recommend pre-booking your day trip through the cruise line or with one of the many independent operators recommended on the Dominica discussion board at http://www.cruisecritic.com Barbados - 8a-4:30p Docked at the new cruise ship terminal in Bridgetown, $2 pp shuttle or $5 per taxi to downtown - In the planning, Barbados had captured my attention for its variety of scenic natural spots, from caves to seaside cliffs and Scottish-like highlands to pink sand beaches, as well as its interesting historical sites, potters community and arts and crafts galleries. However, after our day-long road trip in Dominica, the thought of spending any time in a vehicle was unappealing, so we took the easy way out and booked the cruise line's early morning snorkeling excursion to two stops-a swim with the turtles location and a shipwreck snorkel. http://adventurelandbarbados.com/surf.htm It was an uncharacteristically ho-hum snorkel in our Caribbean experience. We expected lots of turtles comparable to the stingray bar in Grand Cayman, but just three old guys swam over to gawk at the goggle-eyed tourists; there were many schools of fish at the shipwreck, but not much variety. The rum punch on the way back to the cruise terminal was better than most-it should be, Barbados is famous for its dark rums, including Mount Gay (you can tour the distillery). In the afternoon, we went into Bridgetown, which features several London-inspired buildings. It was Christmas Eve, and we had fun jostling with the throng of locals doing their holiday shopping in the downtown department stores-Cave Shepherd (the island store likened to Harrods) and Harrison's-as well as a chemist's shop (pharmacy), where we bought some toiletries, a rum cake and all kinds of chemistry set ingredients difficult to buy over the counter in the US. Just a block or two off the main drag, you will feel far removed from the tourist scene-lots of primo photo opps for those looking for interesting shots of the "real" Barbados and Bajan people. The shopping at the new cruise ship terminal was pretty decent, although prices were slightly better in town, of course. Isla Margarita - 10a-3:30p Docked at the cruise ship terminal 45 minutes from the main town of Porlamar - There were cruise ship excursions to the few "highlight" cultural and natural sites on this relatively quiet Venezuelan island, but our chosen activity-a Cruise Critic-recommended "booze cruise" to nearby Coche Island-didn't attract enough responders and was cancelled. Because of the relatively short day in port and remote port location, I think most pax chose to stay at the terminal-side straw market and beach. So, we strolled along the aisles of 100+ arts and crafts stands located just steps from the gangway-there were some delightfully different things for sale, not simply the "usual" Caribbean kitsch. The island is known for its natural pearls, and many pax were happy to find fair quality, reasonably priced "everyday pearls." At the far end of the market, there was a bar and snack shack with live music and costumed dancers who performed periodically. Beyond the bar was a nice beach with rental loungers, paddle boats, jet skis, etc. The ocean bottom here is sand mixed with rocks and shell fragments-water shoes are recommended for tender feet, and bring insect repellant to ward off sand flies. Curacao - 9a-5:30p Docked at the edge of picturesque Willemstad - The floating bridge from the pier to the town center is under renovation, so you can take a taxi or 15-minute walk with complimentary ferry transfer. It was Christmas Day, and contrary to expectations, many stores were open for the cruise ship trade. This was our 3rd visit, and we always taxi straight to the Sea Aquarium http://www.curacao-sea-aquarium.com to swim with the sharks, turtles, rays and dolphins. This is a fascinating and fun experience for kids of all ages, and the adjacent beach is nice, too. We love the Netherlands Antilles-they're almost always warm and sunny, the people are friendly and helpful without being pushy, and on Curacao, Willemstad's gorgeous pastel buildings are a photographer's joy. Diana Ball near Houston, TX |
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Our Port Days in 6 Southern Caribbean Ports
"D Ball" wrote in message ... For upcoming Southern Caribbean cruisers and archives researchers, here's an overview of our December 2005 port days in Princess Cays, St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, Isla Margarita and Curacao. We're into fun-in-the-sun activities, so if shopping's your primary interest, you may want to skip to the brief mention of shopping in Barbados and Isla Margarita and move on! Nice summaries! Thank you! Pete |
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