Looking for Empress of the sea/Grenada reports

[Spanky My]

I am hoping to hear from some RECENT empress of the sea passengers who were the first ones to dock in grenada and get there thoughts. I appreciated Jumbie's earlier report and are curious what RCCI passenger thought of what condition the island was in and what they did .....

[springtxbill]

I don't believe it has opened back up yet. We did not go there on our 20 Dec sailing.:)

[Spanky My]

He posted a week or so ago the empress of the sea was there. He is a grenada resident.

[danielle860]

Hello - I just got back from The 1/03/05 sailing of the Empress. Grenada was open! We were there on a Sunday and I had a feeling that most shops in town would not be open. This was indeed the case. We booked a tour called "Grenada's East Coast", which turned out to be more of a hurricane damage tour. Grenada still shows signs of the severe damage, and it was a very sombering trip. The bus was relatively large and comfortable- not one of those minivans where they try and cram 20 people inside (although I did see a few of those). Grenadian drivers are very aggressive, and it's quite a sight to see someone passing you at 55mph on a tight mountain road.

 

There were spice vendors everywhere on the tour, and our guide had indicated that the nutmeg trees were almost completely damaged and it takes 15 years for a new tree to reach maturity. Apparently they were operating on a three year remaining supply.

 

It's a sad situation there, many people are living in houses with no second story or tarps over the roof. The churches in town will never be used again as they were completely destroyed. The people of Grenada seem incredibly relaxed and laid back about the damage, and many were spending their Sunday morning making repairs- I was impressed with the attitude and I don't know that I would be the same if I were in their shoes.

 

My one peice of advice is to book a bus tour here - you won't get a full picture of the island without one.

 

I'll be writing a full review soon and hopefully will be able to post some pictures that I took of the island. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I will try and help!