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

"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