Stinger-pr's fascinating honeymoon, Fascination cruise review- Oct. 16-23, 2016

Love the review so far!:) Very balanced and well written. Great photos too! Eagerly awaiting the rest of the story.:D

Stinger-pr..

Are you going to have time to finish this great review? I have been following it the entire time. I want to see how it ends. We are on the Fascination in just over 3 weeks.

Thank you in advance

I was wondering the same thing.

I was wondering the same thing.

Ditto.

Stinger-pr..

 

Are you going to have time to finish this great review? I have been following it the entire time. I want to see how it ends. We are on the Fascination in just over 3 weeks.

 

Thank you in advance

I was wondering the same thing.

and easyboy (didn't let me quote your reply)...

I'm sure he'll be back...it wouldn't be like Stinger-pr to leave us hanging and he's never left a review unfinished. These reviews take time and I know life gets in the way, but I'm sure he'll be back.

and easyboy (didn't let me quote your reply)...

 

I'm sure he'll be back...it wouldn't be like Stinger-pr to leave us hanging and he's never left a review unfinished. These reviews take time and I know life gets in the way, but I'm sure he'll be back.

Someone will have to volunteer to fly to San Juan to do his job for him so he can get the review done.:) (And since we just got 7 inches of snow I am more than willing:D.)

and easyboy (didn't let me quote your reply)...

 

I'm sure he'll be back...it wouldn't be like Stinger-pr to leave us hanging and he's never left a review unfinished. These reviews take time and I know life gets in the way, but I'm sure he'll be back.

Sure he will :)

We loved Spencer last time we were there. We did the Jalousie Beach Break last but we are doing the Land, Sea, and Beach tour this time. Thanks for posting all the pictures!

 

I continue to love the review, thanks again for taking the time to post!

Hey I hope you guys are still around. We're planing another go-around for summer 2018 but this time it will be with our three teen aged kids who've already been on St. Lucia's tours so we're going to go with Spencer again but only for the Jalousie Beach Break. My daughter and DW loved the snorkeling there so much that when the boys saw the pictures they said that's what they wanted to do.

Stinger-pr..

 

Are you going to have time to finish this great review? I have been following it the entire time. I want to see how it ends. We are on the Fascination in just over 3 weeks.

 

Thank you in advance

Hi, yes!! I will be finally be able to finish this before Wednesday since I'm going to have a few days off to do so. Thank you for still following. I'll be posting on St. Kitts today, BTW.

Where will you be staying? Or are you just going straight from SJU to the ship?

I was wondering the same thing.

I will...I will!

and easyboy (didn't let me quote your reply)...

 

I'm sure he'll be back...it wouldn't be like Stinger-pr to leave us hanging and he's never left a review unfinished. These reviews take time and I know life gets in the way, but I'm sure he'll be back.

Oh, finally... Someone threw me a bone! hahaha. Seriously though life HAS been hectic lately and work has not helped at all either. But I WILL finish this thing soon enough.

Someone will have to volunteer to fly to San Juan to do his job for him so he can get the review done.:) (And since we just got 7 inches of snow I am more than willing:D.)

Oh, please...please, do so!! I've finally been able to lighten the load at work (hopefully permanently) and I've been settling in my newlywed life (does it get tougher with age??).

7 Inches of snow? Damn... we had a week here where the temps went down as far as 59-61F in the San Juan metro area and people were acting like they were living in the polar cap. It's not uncommon in the mountains but not on the coast. The temps in the mountain regions went down as far as the high 40's.

Sure he will :)

(In my best Darth Vader voice) "I find you're lack of faith disturbing":D

Day 6: St. Kitts

Today’s Fun Times:

I don’t know if it was out of routine or what but I woke up just before sunrise so I decided to get changed, break out of the room quietly and snap a few pictures without DW even noticing I had left. I had promised not to put any more early alarms so thankfully she never noticed. Having a pseudo-king bed (really two twins joined together) with separate mattresses helped, since she didn’t even feel me get up.

Anyway, I was out the door at 5:45am and the whole place was like a ghost ship. There were parts where I didn’t even see crew members around, it was a bit surreal. But I jumped at the opportunity to snap some more pictures around the ship before the sun broke the horizon. This, of course, after letting my camera lenses and filters defog for a few minutes outside.

The art gallery:

To me that gallery is a complete waste of space. I find it hard to believe that at year’s end, they make more money selling art from this hallway than having that space converted into rooms (maybe 6-8 of those “sideways” interior rooms) and having a return on them year round. The walls on this hallway already connect to other interior rooms so why not have one narrow hallway and some long room layouts, maybe for single occupancy rooms that don’t take as much space? I guess we’ll never know. I know that due to the ship's layout, this space would've been wasted if not for the gallery but come on! Anyway…

Stars Bar and band stage:

Lido deck area:

Day 6: St. Kitts continued...

Today’s breakfast menu:

Day 6: St. Kitts continued...

Today’s sunrise was spectacular. There were some clouds just over the horizon but they were high enough that the sun was able to peek out just under them. From our vantage point we saw the sun come up just to the left of what I think was Redonda Island about half way between Nevis and Monserrat.

Nevis in the distance:

After walking around for a while I decided to go back to the room for a bit since we were really in no hurry today since our tour meeting time wasn’t scheduled until 9am (unlike the previous day where we were off the ship before 8:30am). This gave us plenty of time to go about our week-long morning routine and allowed DW to sleep a little longer while I got back outside to snap a few pictures of our approach into Basseterre bay and came back to the room to get our bags ready for the day.

Day 6: St. Kitts continued...

We went up to lido for breakfast and again encountered almost no lines (I’m starting to love these smaller, less crowded ships!!). After having a pretty relaxed breakfast, we started to make our way to the gangway. We got our now obligatory gangway pictures taken and off we went.

My “I was there” pic:

We got to our meeting place (in the picture above, just under the center arch) around 8:45am and a nice lady checked our names on the list and told us where to wait on the benches on the far left of the picture until called and that we had about 15 minutes in case we wanted to wander around. I set off to find an available and open WIFI hotspot. Without wandering too far from our meeting point I found the signal from the Mapau Casino just to the right after you pass the gates and guards into the main shopping area. We didn’t pass the guards though since we got as close as we could to the casino by the fence of the gated area in the back of the yellow entrance building. We had a strong enough signal that we were able to use Whatsapp for messaging and calling to check on our kids back home.

Exactly at 9am they started calling for those who were on the Grand Tour of St. Kitts from Thenford Grey, which was the one we were on. This would be my second time doing this tour but DW’s first. Although I had said that, after taking the tour last year (2015) I wasn’t sure I’d do it again, I decided to give it a try again just for DW’s enjoyment since she’s been here twice before but she never got past the shops once and didn’t even get off the ship on the other.

Now, I want to make a note of something here. Take my praise of the tour with high regards but on the other hand, take my gripes about it with a grain of salt. Here’s why: I’m a bit opinionated (as if you hadn’t noticed before) when it comes to the tourism, hospitality and/or gaming industry since that’s what I do for a living. Being from and living in Puerto Rico exposes me to landscapes, sights and, experiences similar to what you would find in a lot of these Caribbean islands. So while, for example, the sight of a Papaya, mango, breadfruit and banana trees growing together near the side of the road might be intriguing to someone that doesn’t even know what a papaya is, I have a papaya plant on the backyard of one neighbor, a mango tree three houses down and, plantain trees in my backyard. I am not bashing the tour in any shape, way or form. There are some things that were pedestrian for us but others were very entertaining and interesting. But I will point out instances where to my personal opinion, time was wasted on some things that were trivial and other with more significance were cut short or even ignored.

Having said all that BS…. We were escorted to a waiting van by our driver Pastor Henry Williams. I was hoping we would get Thenford Grey himself since he was extremely enjoyable and knowledgeable. But Pastor Williams did not disappoint by any means. Pastor Williams is really an ordained pastor in St. Kitts and our trip did not begin until he introduced himself properly, told us a bit about himself and said a prayer for us and our safety. I thought that this might be a touchy subject that everyone should know about since, while I had absolutely no problem with it (actually though it was a nice touch), others might not feel the same way.

Our van was very comfortable, clean, in great condition and had nice air conditioning. Pastor Williams uses a headset with a microphone that send sound to the van’s speakers so everyone can hear clearly what he is narrating as we move along. He was also very knowledgeable and passionate about his island and its history and his voice was always cool, calmed and relaxed. Everytime we stopped somewhere he made a point of asking if everyone was ok, if there were any questions, etc. We made our way out of Port Zante and headed into downtown Basseterre.

Day 6: St. Kitts continued...

We were given a brief history of the town and some of its landmarks along with some tidbits like the fact that there are no traffic lights in St. Kitts. Not one! They use roundabouts for big intersections and “right of way” for smaller ones. That’s something I had not realized last time I was there. Oh the benefits of being small island.

Along the way we saw some landmarks and government buildings like

The old Treasury building, now the site of the National Museum

The Immaculate Conception cathedral

The police headquarters or as Pastor Williams said, “The only place you really don’t want to be in while in St. Kitts.”

Day 6: St Kitts continued...

The Berkley Memorial, which feature a public drinking fountain (more like a public faucet) as well as a clock with four faces. This is located in a part of town called The Circus. It’s decked in pink ribbons due to the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign during the month of October.

We also passed the St. George’s Anglican Church

And the Government Headquarters, which BTW is somewhat of a plain building sandwiched between other buildings so if you blink, you’ll miss it (but won’t really miss much).

We stopped here at the War Memorial and were given information about the soldiers that fought in WW I and II that were born in St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguila.

Just past the War Memorial we saw the embassies for Brazil and Venezuela.

Day 6: St. Kitts continued...

We also stopped a bit further up the road for a few minutes for a photo op of the ship in the distance across the bay.

We then headed towards what would be our first full stop at Caribelle Batik and Romney Manor. Along the way we made some brief stops at some points of interests like the St. Kitts veterinary school (considered the best in the Caribbean, including PR). We stopped at a group of thorny bushes where a flock of Egrets were nesting. Pastor Williams gave us some detailed info as to why they nest specifically on those bushes, ect.

Another brief stop was at Bloody Point. This is an important spot in St. Kitts’s history due to a huge clash between French-British armies and Carib Indians. You may guess where the name Bloody point comes from. Too bad you can only see it from the van since it’s not really a developed attraction and I've read that there are even some petroglyphs on various rocks if you walk a bit further up (maybe more history than things to see??).

This is the spot where (for me anyway) the un-interesting info about the aforementioned fruit trees was given. While still in the same spot, we were told to look to the left of the van to see various trees growing along the banks of the dried stream (it does get water flow during the rainy season). There were no plantations, no crops, no history about exports like in St. Lucia and its bananas. It was just like “that’s what a mango tree looks like” kind of thing. This puzzled me even more when we passed a site with a huge rock that has Carib Indian petroglyphs clearly written. This is something that is easily visible from the road (the actual petroglyph is painted white so it’s easier to see...doh!), has actual history behind it and I think would be more interesting than random fruit trees. Visit http://www.discover-stkitts-nevis-beaches.com/st-kitts-attractions.html for more info on these sites. BUT….we never stopped or anything was mentioned about it. I knew it was there since we did briefly stop there (although we stayed in the van) in my previous tour with Thenford Grey where other than breadfruit, which is big in St. Kitts, not much was said of any other fruit trees.

The road we took borders the southwest part of the island close to the sea which made for some beautiful sights on a sunny, wonderful day like the one we had. We finally reached the turn off for Romney Manor and started up a street that turned into a very narrow road leading into Caribelle Batik. On our way up, close to reaching our destination, we passed another important site in Wingfield Estate. This is another important historical site in St. Kitts because its original owner was Samuel Jefferson, the great, great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States. He later sold much of the Estate to Mr. Romney and the mills and grounds of the estate were used to process everything from tobacco to sugar cane to even illegal rum from the late 17-th century to the early 20th century. BUT….we never stopped and it was like “BTW there’s that…” Again, I had seen it up close on my previous tour (we did get to walk around the site that time) but I was still hoping we’d stop because I wanted some new pictures and I’m pretty sure it would’ve been interesting to the other folks on the tour that would not see anything like this in other islands (including PR).

Picture from Wingfield Estate from my previous trip in 2015:

Day 6: St. Kitts continued...

So, we finally made it to Caribell Batik in Romney manor. Before entering the premises (entry fee is included in the tour price) Pastor Williams gave us some information about the history of the property, some of the amazing plants and flowers that abound there and of the Batik itself. He escorted us through the entry gate, gave us a time to be back on the bus and let us roam about on our own leisure.

I found it interesting that this sign was only in Spanish since Spanish is not even a third language in this island. The only other sign with entry price info was at the main gate itself.

Day 6: St. Kitts continued...

There was one of the groundskeeper that shared some more info about the plants, some of them somewhat rare, including the gigantic and imposing Saman Tree, which is over 400 years old. As you can see in the picture, it surely dwarfs anything near it.

That’s me taking a picture of the trunk of the tree. I’m 6’3” tall and look at how imposingly huge that tree is over me.

We made our way to a wooden house where the actual Batik store and exhibits lie. Here, while one of the skillful workers narrates the process of making the patterns and staining the fabric, you can see a group of mounted fabrics where the process is also shown step by step. They are always working on something and chances are that you will see one of the fabrics being worked on at that moment.

Once past the exhibit you walk into the Batik store. Prices tend to be a bit on the high side but once you take into consideration the amount of work that actually goes into making the items, it doesn’t seem as steep. Once outside, there were some fabrics drying in the hot sun.

Day 6: St Kitts continued...

As you exit the store there’s a shack where you can buy refreshments and snacks and just to the side of that there’s a lookout point overlooking Winfield Estate. We roamed around for a while taking pictures and were the first back to the van at the 10:50am time meet time.

We got back on the coastal road and headed to Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park. On our way we passed the St. Thomas Anglican Church (named for the saint, not the island). In this cemetery lay the remains of Thomas Werner (first English governor of the West Indies) and the aforementioned Samuel Jefferson.

And we also stopped here. Maybe just in case we didn’t get to see one monkey all day??

This fort compound is in such condition that it has been named an UNSECO Heritage Site since 1999.