REVIEW: Carnival Valor to Southern Caribbean Oct 6-13, 2013 OUR FIRST CRUISE!

[valentinebaby1]

We're the masks and snorkels available to rent at Jalousie Beach or did you have your own? Headed on this itinerary in 3 weeks and we are doing Calabazza and Cosol as well so thank you soooooo much for the preview!!

 

Calabaza provided snorkel equipment of course. Cosol does not. We brought our own mask and snorkel but didn't have fins. At Jalousie beach, If I remember correctly they had people standing there right as we got off the taxi ready to rent them to you, but I don't know how much it cost.

[hockeyluver]

How much time did you have after the Cosol tour? We usually book mostly with Carnival, wouldnt want to miss the ship!!!

[valentinebaby1]

How much time did you have after the Cosol tour? We usually book mostly with Carnival, wouldnt want to miss the ship!!!

 

I wouldn't hesitate to book with them, they are professionals and will get you back on time. I'm pretty sure we were back around 3pm.

[hockeyluver]

I wouldn't hesitate to book with them, they are professionals and will get you back on time. I'm pretty sure we were back around 3pm.

 

Awesome Thanks!

[josieallen]

On our cruise in 2010, my feet swelled so bad we couldn't go on our excursion. My toes looked like little sausages. Thank goodness I had some fluid pills and took one. Spent the next 4 hours up on the Lido deck going in and out of the bathroom. I was actually embarrassed thinking people were watching me that we moved to another spot to continue the use of the facilities. Good thing is, the swelling was gone. I never cruise without fluid pills. :D

[Spring1onu]

Loving your review and pics! I teared up at reading your intro....very sweet! Glad you guys were able to finally have your honeymoon - looks like you guys had an amazing time. Love your sense of adventure -- best way to have a great time! Looking forward to reading more of your review :D

[valentinebaby1]

On our cruise in 2010, my feet swelled so bad we couldn't go on our excursion. My toes looked like little sausages. Thank goodness I had some fluid pills and took one. Spent the next 4 hours up on the Lido deck going in and out of the bathroom. I was actually embarrassed thinking people were watching me that we moved to another spot to continue the use of the facilities. Good thing is, the swelling was gone. I never cruise without fluid pills. :D

 

How awful! I'm not sure which would be worse; the fluid pills or the swollen feet!

 

Loving your review and pics! I teared up at reading your intro....very sweet! Glad you guys were able to finally have your honeymoon - looks like you guys had an amazing time. Love your sense of adventure -- best way to have a great time! Looking forward to reading more of your review :D

 

Aw, thanks! More coming soon!

[valentinebaby1]

OCT 11, 2013-day 9

Good morning St Kitts!

I believe this little island is called Redonda

 

 

g

 

The always cloud topped island of Nevis

 

We debated and debated what to do in St Kitts and it was the last island that we ended up booking. The funny thing is that prior to being there we were the least excited about St Kitts, and I'm not even sure why. It ended up being one of our favorite islands! We finally decided on Royston Tours and we contacted Royston to book. Royston told us that he was going to be out of the country that week, but booked us with his cousin Ashton. I had read good things about both Royston and Ashton, so we were fine either way. On Friday morning, we met Ashton as scheduled, and as it turned out no one else had signed up for the tour. Ashton still showed, even though it was just the 2 of us and that impressed me! The tour cost $45 per person, which included admission into the Brimstone Fortress, and a burrito type wrap for lunch.

 

First off, I have to say that Ashton was such a kind, genuine person and we loved every minute of the tour! We started out through the town of Basseterre and saw Independence Square and this area with the clock tower called The Circus,

 

 

We saw St George's Anglican Church:

 

And saw the gorgeous cathedral:

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2013 by valentinebaby1

[valentinebaby1]

Here are some other shots of Basseterre:

 

 

 

 

 

While we were heading out of Basseterre, we passed the War Memorial. It has 2 bronze plaques with the names of 20 servicemen from WW1 and 6 servicemen from WW2.

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

As we made our way around the other side of Basseterre we took this photo of the ship in port:

 

 

And another shot of Nevis:

 

 

We also passed this tree full of white heron or egrets nesting:

 

 

As we started to make our way around the island, I was so impressed with Ashton's love for his country. He had so much passion when he spoke!

 

 

Ashton pointed out many interesting places, and told us stories and always answered questions we had.

 

 

He told us a lot about the history of the sugar mills and that sugar is no longer produced the way that it was. But apparently the sugar cane plants continue to grow like weeds and have to be burned on occasion to slow the growth, but they will just keep coming back. As we were driving in the countryside, it was hard to tell the sugar cane from the weeds. Here you can see part of an old railway that was used in transportation of the sugar:

 

[valentinebaby1]

Soon we arrived at Wingfield Estate. I thought the old sugar plantation was Romney Manor, but Romney Manor is actually what is now Caribelle Batik, and Wingfield Estate is the old plantation. They are very close together though. Wingfield Estate was very neat to see. It is still being excavated in places. I love that we could walk though it instead of it being roped off and off limits like something like that in the States would likely be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The edge of the rainforest is right there on the property, so we learned a little about the forest and hubby even got a chance to swing on a vine!

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

We saw lots of interesting plants and trees, including this fruit...I have no idea what it was called though:

 

 

 

Next up was Romney Manor, home of the Caribelle Batik. I was really excited about seeing the batik. In middle school we had a segment of an art class devoted to batik and it was one of the favorite projects I got to do. Just the smell of the wax used in the process brought back memories from middle school and probably my favorite class I ever took. Anyway, Romney Manor was beautifully kept and simply gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

We were able to see a demonstration of the batik process, and shop for lots of batik items. We picked up quite a bit here, it was hard to decide! Pillows were I think $18-$22 (they are sold as the quilted type cover only), they had picture frames for $8, coin purses for $6, makeup bags for $12, several different sized wall hangings starting at $35, scarfs for $22, purses for $30 and up I think, and so much more...jewelry and clothing, soaps and sachets, and you could purchase fabric and fat quarter bundles for quilting. We felt the prices were ok, not terribly over priced. We were able to charge our purchases.

 

The nice thing about having Ashton all to ourselves was that we never had to worry about taking too much time, or having to wait for anyone else. When we were ready for the next part of our adventure, Ashton was ready too. So we soon headed the next stop, which was Brimstone Fortress. Along the way we saw this church. It is the Middle Island Anglican Church, where Samuel Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson's ancestor) was buried, and it was the first Anglican church in the Eastern Caribbean:

 

 

Soon we arrived at the Brimstone Fortress:

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

Initially when planning our trip, we didn't have any interest in seeing Brimstone Fortress. I'm not sure why, but I think maybe because we had planned to see the forts of Old San Juan, we thought it would be very similar. Well, since we didn't get to explore the forts from the inside, we found Brimstone Fortress to be very much worth the effort. The day was so perfect and the sky was so blue, but it was very hot!

 

The hill to get to the top of the fortress is very steep and it took some effort, especially in the heat, to get to the top:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruisinJenF]

St Kitts ended up being our favorite too!!!! I really didn't expect much. We hired a cab driver to ourselves and for $100 total he took us around all day, whatever we wanted to do! We did Caribelle Batik/Romney Manor, Brimstone Fortress, drove around seeing those churches. Enjoyed Carib Beers during the drive :). Then he took us to Carambola Beach Club for beach time and then more sightseeing and back to the ship. Such a great great day!!! St Kitts is the island we most want to go back to.

[cruisinJenF]

Lol I took tons of pics of the stairs going up at Brimstone, mostly because.....I'm fluffy and by stopping to take a picture it gave me a break! Really I was just dying and thought I wouldn't make it up!

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

The walk back down was almost as hard, given the swelling in my feet. I had blisters from my flip flops at this point and between the swelling and the blisters, and the fact that walking down the steep hill was forcing my feet to slide further into my shoes...yikes! I would have just taken off my shoes and walked barefoot had it not been so hot!

 

[valentinebaby1]

After we finished at the fortress, our next stop on the tour was a scenic spot, where the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean sea meet. You can watch the waves going in 2 different directions at that point and you can see the difference in the water colors. It was so neat!

 

 

 

Our next stop was at the black rocks. There are several vendors set up at this spot. I knew at some point that I wanted to hold a monkey. One of the ladies with a booth set up had her monkey available to hold. She was not pushy and didn't demand payment, she was very kind so we wanted to take photos here. We had a discussion with Ashton about the monkeys because I had read that they remove their teeth so that they won't bite and I didn't want to contribute to something that was cruel, or pay someone who might not treat their monkey well. Ashton explained that the people who own the monkeys do have their canine teeth removed, but not all their teeth. He said it's like people declawing cats, maybe not ideal and not the kindest thing to do, but very common practice and with reason. He said they are well cared for and are treated like pets, and not abused. After meeting the woman at the black rocks, we could see that she took care of her little baby, who's name was Jacque, and they had a bond. She said she just accepted what you wanted to pay, where most of vendors charged $5-10 for a single photo with a monkey.

 

I held Jacque first...there's just something magical that happened, I can't even describe it. Just peace I guess. You can see it in our eyes...silly I know, but look for yourself:

 

 

 

 

 

We each held him and took several photos. Jacque loved to have his tummy rubbed and he relaxed and laid his head down against us when we rubbed his tummy. She didn't rush us or ask for anything in return. We felt fine in paying her $10 for her time and continued on to see the black rocks.

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

At one of the earlier stops, hubby was looking at the large conch shells for sale, and he wanted to buy one. We debated it because we weren't sure we could bring them back into the US, so we didn't want to spend a lot of money on one. The larger prettier ones were selling for $15-20. We passed one up earlier and hubby was now regretting it, but I didn't want to spend that kind of money if there was a chance we wouldn't be able to keep it. After looking at the black rocks and heading back we were looking at all the vendors tables to see if anyone had any large conch shells for sale, and the only one was at the booth of the monkey lady. In fact you can see it on the table in the monkey photos of me. Hubby stopped at her booth again and asked about the shell, and the very sweet woman handed it to him and said it was a gift. She said she was so happy that we paid her so well for the monkey pictures that she wanted us to have it. Hubby said he couldn't possibly take it from her, but in the end we paid $6 for it and we were both happy. She was such a sweet woman, and our experience with her really made the day special!

 

At this point we had made almost the complete circle around the island. The island of St Lucia we spent most of the day driving IN the hills and mountains, and in St Kitts we drove completely around the mountain and not really IN it. Anyway, we were now heading towards the peninsula and to Timothy Hill, where you can see the Atlantic on the left and the Caribbean on the right. We drove past Timothy Hill and Ashton told us we would stop there after the beach. The spot was pretty crowded at that time, so we were fine with that idea.

 

We continued on and back through Basseterre and Ashton stopped to pick up our lunch. We were given a choice between chicken, veggie, conch and maybe one other option, I don't remember. Lunch was a "roti" which was basically a soft burrito filled with a mashed potato and curry mixture and the meat choice. We chose one chicken and one conch, which was the first time for us to try conch.

 

We drove from there to South Friars Beach, which is home of the Shipwreck Bar. We were more interested in swimming/snorkeling than the bar itself. We ate lunch the cool a/c van before getting out and onto the beach. Lunch was very good, and we actually really liked the conch.

 

Next we headed to the beach. We had probably a good 2 hours there, we didn't feel rushed at all and had plenty of time to snorkel and relax. We opted not to rent any chairs, since we wanted to be in the water more than out of it.

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

The black sand beach was very soft, and I thought it would be very hot (that was the experience we had at one other black sand beach we had visited in Mississippi once), but it wasn't any hotter than the other sand. It was pretty! The water is roped off in 2 sections, one side is the coral for snorkeling, and the other is the swimming side. There is a dock you can swim out to, and the water stays pretty shallow even out past the dock.

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

The snorkeling was pretty good here, although we had only brought one set of our snorkel equipment, because we couldn't remember if we'd have snorkel time on our tour or not. Hubby went way further out than I did, and he brought back several decent sized sand dollars and a couple fairly good sized conch shells. The shells had already had their tenants removed, so they must have been thrown back for whatever reason. He also saw some large starfish and lots of different fish:

 

I think these are called cuttlefish:

 

I'm pretty sure there is an octopus hiding in there:

 

lots of sea urchins...be careful of these!

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

After our time was up at South Friars Beach, we headed back out and stopped at Timothy Hill for photos:

 

 

 

 

We got back to the port with plenty of time. We were very happy with our tour and kind of felt we had to tip Ashton well, since we were his only fare of the day, but he was worth the extra money. We didn't really shop much in port as we had spent our budget at Caribelle Batik. We boarded the ship and showered for dinner.

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

Goodbye beautiful island of St Kitts!

 

 

 

Dinner was just the 2 of us tonight, although we were seated very near another couple that we got to chatting with and had a lovely visit. We had escargot off the Didja menu (blech!) and I had spring rolls. Hubby had escargot also. We both had chateaubriand for our entree, and I had baked alaska and he had amaretto cake for desserts. After dinner we decided to catch a show in the Ivanhoe Theater. It was an 80's theme and I enjoyed it. Hubby dozed on and off, not so much because he wasn't enjoying the show, he was just very tired. We ended up sitting in the show with the couple we met at dinner, but we did get into the theater last minute so we didn't have very good seats. After the show we headed to bed.

 

[valentinebaby1]

St Kitts ended up being our favorite too!!!! I really didn't expect much. We hired a cab driver to ourselves and for $100 total he took us around all day, whatever we wanted to do! We did Caribelle Batik/Romney Manor, Brimstone Fortress, drove around seeing those churches. Enjoyed Carib Beers during the drive :). Then he took us to Carambola Beach Club for beach time and then more sightseeing and back to the ship. Such a great great day!!! St Kitts is the island we most want to go back to.

 

We'd love to go back there someday as well, it was very lovely!

 

Lol I took tons of pics of the stairs going up at Brimstone, mostly because.....I'm fluffy and by stopping to take a picture it gave me a break! Really I was just dying and thought I wouldn't make it up!

 

I stopped a few times too....it was a little rough! But worth the effort!