Friday 20th March

From The Caribbean. 

Day 1: Sunday.

We had a bit of a scare early Sunday morning when our taxi to the airport turned up. We were expecting a people carrier as there were 4 of us with 20kg cases each plus 4 x 10kg flight bags plus personal luggage. He turned up in a saloon! 20 minutes later with the boot stuffed and baggage round our feet and on our knees we headed for the airport.

The flight from Newcastle to Barbados was a long but smooth one. I am not a frequent flier and never on a long haul flight and get a bit claustrophobic on planes but it was a larger plane with 2 aisles and I found the trip quite pleasant. We were on a new TUI jet which cruised at 43,000 ft. After the landing we were bussed directly to the ship. After security checks we headed to our cabins where our luggage would join us later. We grabbed something to eat and headed for the pool deck and after a few beers we started to relax in the warm breeze. We were 4 hours behind the UK in Barbados so it had been a long day but we managed to stay up until about 10pm before crashing.

Day 2: Monday At Sea.

Monday was a day at sea, still in the Atlantic, heading to our first Caribbean Island, Tortola. It gave us a chance to get our bearings on the ship but it wasn't exactly smooth sailing with strong trade winds and choppy seas buffering the ship. Strangely after the tiring day travelling we were up at 6am and on the deck for half-past with a coffee in the shirt and shorts.

We vibrated through breakfast and although it was a hot day there was always a warm breeze. We're all inclusive on this trip so everything is free if you want it to be. There's plenty of choice for food and beer. We spent the day relaxing on deck. In the evening it was "Dress to Impress" night in the restaurants. So, we got dressed up for the evening. We ate in the main dining restaurant but we were at the back of the ship. The vibration was affecting my enjoyment but later on deck it was undetectable. I was drinking borabora which is a fruit drink but adding a coconut rum makes it my drink of choice.

Day 3: Tuesday. Tortola. 

We were up early again and we drank tea on deck and watched pelicans fly around.  We were moored next to a massive 7000 people Disney ship which dwarfed our Morella vessel… We headed off to the port where we got an open sided tour bus for a 2 hour island trip. We want to see the islands we visit not just the port or beach and this was a good way to do it. The friendly driver delivered an informative commentary as we headed around the island and into the hills which gave spectacular views of the port and town. The roads were barely 2 lanes wide and a bit rough and very steep in places but the views were worth it. At one point it poured with rain for 5 minutes, quite a common experience at this time of year. I got a bit wet on the end of our row but dried quite quickly in the warm breeze. I was pleased we did the tour as we not only saw a lot of the island we wouldn't have seen but learnt about its history including the devastating hurricanes in 2017. We liked Tortola and thought we saw its real side, not just the port and tourist destinations. We had a good night of food and drink. We even managed to watch most of "Song Sung Blue" on the pool deck big screen before retiring. We were met by a towel made into a rabbit. The cleaning staff are all lovely, attentive and very creative and leave us some towel animal every night. They even gave us a card and a towel in the shape of a heart as Natasha had put down on our form that it was our anniversary trip.

Day 4: St Marteens/Martens.

When we arrived on deck at 7am again with coffee, there was already another P&O cruise ship in port and a 3 mast cruise ship next to us. A huge "Symphony of the Sea" cruise liner then pulled in next to us. There were going to be a lot of people on St Marteens (various spellings).

After a quick breakfast, we set off for the port.  Half of the island is Dutch and the other half French. We were moored on the Dutch side. We hired a cab over to Margi on the French side where there was a market. The taxi driver warned us about the traffic and he wasn't wrong. Cars here are cheap, they don't pay import duty here and everyone has a car. The roads aren't really built for that much traffic. It took us nearly an hour to drive over to Margi. After a drink  we wandered around the market but we weren' treally in the mood for shopping so Natasha went to take photos of the harbour and was startled by a large Geko which nearly landed on her knee. It was hot and windy so whilst we left Martin and Sheena in a bar Natasha and I went towards the harbour and watched the activity on an aqua sea. After a cold beer in the bar we got a taxi back to port. It was really too busy and although we probably didn't see much of the island we'd really had too much. We spent the afternoon in the sun round the pool deck. They have live bands, quizes and games in the afternoon and we enjoyed a few drinks. Natasha and I went up on the forward deck to watch a stunning sunset, which happens quickly. In the evening there was a pool deck party with live music, dance and entertainment.  We weren't going to bother but we thought we'd give it a go for a while. It was a real laugh with most of the people on board singing and dancing until late....Very late for us. We got to bed at 12.36am (we'd been up at 6am).

Day 5: St Kitts.

Despite our late night, we were up early to watch the ship enter the harbour at St Kitts with beautiful views on both sides, hills trees and colourful buildings set in a turquoise sea with sunshine and clouds above. It was, again, warm and windy. We walked into port where we booked an island tour with a beach trip. The driver had a very strong accent and we could only catch fragments of his very sparse commentary but the trip was worth it for some spectacular viewing points including a meeting of oceans where the Caribbean Sea meets The Atlantic.  We did see a great deal of the island and a range of wildlife including pelicans, nesting cranes, suicidal chickens, goats, donkeys and monkeys. Unfortunately, the 90 minute tour lasted 3 hours! Martin and Sheena decided not to come to the beach but we decided to give it a go for a couple of hours. We persuaded the driver to take the 2 of us and he dropped us of at South Friars, a local beach as the heavens opened! Fortunately the rain didn't last long. The view was stunning with distant mountains and blue and green sea under a hot sun. We grabbed a bench which we didn't have to pay for and some beers which we did. We decided to try our new snorkels out before our snorkeling trip later in the holiday. They worked perfectly and swimming in the warm Caribbean sea was magical. We even got a 4 masted sailing ship pull into the bay. We could only spend an hour and a half there before returning to ship. I sipped a rum punch as the ship pulled out of St Kitts as the sun set over the horizon we headed to our next port of call Antigua.