SWEET LIBERTY! The cruise that almost wasn't! Sept 20-27, 2015 review

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

Look at the face on this one!

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

We had plenty of time to snorkel and it wasn't overly crowded. It did get busier as the afternoon progressed, and the taxi boat came back with others from Cosol's tour. When our time was up, we were able to board the boat from the dock and headed back around the Piton to finish up our tour.

 

 

After a short drive, we stopped at the Toraille Waterfall and had just a few minutes there. Hubby got all the way into the falls, I got in just to wet my feet. The waterfall was very crowded and the water was very cold! But it was still nice to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

We started the drive back to Castries and we made one more stop...

 

Hubby was very happy because our stop was at the rum shop overlooking Marigot Bay!

 

There he met Gloria, the maker of the banana rum we purchased on our last trip, and the spiced rum he had been kicking himself for 2 years for not buying!

 

Unfortunately though, she had sold her one and only bottle of the banana rum. So whoever out there bought her banana rum, I hope you really loved it and savor every drop! She said she sold it to someone from the ship. But she fortunately had 2 bottles of the spiced rum left and we bought them both.

 

Hubby asked Gloria what her secret was to her rum. She did not want to reveal it. Hubby may or may not have coaxed it out of her...I'll never tell. Hubby has since referred to her as his St Lucian wife. So now after 27 years of marriage (and 31 years together) I have finally figured out that all it takes to make him happy is spiced rum!

 

Here is hubby and his new wife:

 

 

Marigot Bay:

 

 

 

And one last shot of the Liberty before reboarding:

 

 

 

[Wags67]

Okay....I totally missed a lot of the fish you guys seen at Sugar Beach/Jalousie Beach! Excellent pictures!

I'm sticking with you guys next cruise we are on together!

Your adventures are Great!

 

I Did see two cuttlefish, though...my underwater camera was having issues and I didn't get very good shots even when I did see fish..Problem solved though...I went out and bought the Tough like you have for our next cruise...LOL!

 

Continuing to enjoy your review:)

[valentinebaby1]

There were a couple tunnels we drove through on our way back to Castries...

 

 

We got back to the Liberty with only 15 minutes to spare. There was no time to shop in the port, but we had already spent our budget for St Lucia along the route so it was fine.

 

 

Once we got back on board, the afternoon/early evenings are kind of a blur as to what we did. Some days we went straight to the pool and swam for a bit until sail away. Some days I went straight for a nap, but hubby never did and he would just wander around, talking to new friends, taking pictures etc. It seems that most afternoons we would grab a burger from Guys since we usually didn't eat a big lunch while in port.

 

 

We hated to say goodbye to the beautiful island of St Lucia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

We had dinner with my sis/bil in the dining room. If I remember correctly we ordered:

prosciutto ruffles

peach soup

shrimp cocktail

ox tongue (I was surprised at how much I liked this!)

jerked chicken wings (some of the best food we had on the whole cruise!)

bbq pork spareribs

mahi mahi (I found this to be very very bland)

 

For dessert we had the sticky toffee brioche and smores parfait. We thought the brioche was amazing! The smores parfait was really good too.

 

After dinner we wandered around the ship for a bit. I think we intended to watch a show, but didn't make it that long. So we ended up calling it a night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

Day 10; September 25, 2015 Friday

St Kitts!

 

I've seen a lot of comments and such from people who don't like St Kitts. I don't understand why, it's a very beautiful island with so much to do!

 

The morning was nothing short of spectacular!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

St Kitts is really a lovely port area. I feel it's one of the most welcoming of the ports we visited. It's not industrial like Barbados. The area was very clean and bright. I just love St Kitts!

 

We had our usual breakfast, and were glad we were out on the lido deck this morning especially!

 

 

 

If this happened on our Valor cruise, we totally missed it. It was a fun way to start our day! After breakfast, we headed off the ship to meet up with Rose, our tour driver for the day. We booked a private tour with Rose & Jim's Taxi & Tour Service. We had initially tried to book with Royston's Tours. At first Royston said he wasn't available, so we asked if his cousin Ashton was available (our tour driver on our last visit to St Kitts). He said Ashton wasn't available. Then later he emailed me back to say he was available but by that point we had booked with Rose & Jim's Tour. I really liked Ashton on our last visit but I didn't like that we couldn't just book with Ashton directly, and that Royston was so wishy-washy.

 

 

We met Rose when we got off the ship. She was a nice older lady, but truthfully something just wasn't as enjoyable being with her. I don't really have any specific complaints about her tour...so it's hard to pinpoint why we felt this way. She seemed tired maybe, or might have been irritated that we booked a private tour when we basically did the standard island tour...I don't know what it was. She didn't seem as passionate about the island as Ashton was. There was nothing wrong with our tour... maybe it was just because we had already toured the island so it wasn't new and exciting for us? I wish I could figure out what it was.

 

Regardless, we started out and first off she gave us paper bracelets that she pointed to a store in the port that we could take them to at the end and exchange them for a free pair of pearl earrings.

 

We got into her van, which was very clean and had decent air, but there were several times during the day that she turned the air off (in her defense it was usually with a reason; like to hear for honking going around the tight turns at Brimstone fortress, or when going up steeper hills). She was also very particular about sand and wet seats so we had to be sure we allowed time to dry off before we could enter the van again. It wasn't that big of a deal, but on every other tour we had been on, they driver wasn't concerned about wet seats and sandy feet. It seemed they'd always say not to worry about it. But Rose was pretty particular about her van.

 

Edited October 25, 2015 by valentinebaby1

[valentinebaby1]

We drove through Basseterre and saw the large clock, government building and police station:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

We continued on and saw the war monument and the egrets/heron nesting area.

 

 

 

 

 

We continued through the little villages and passed the "spirits tree"

 

 

Then we made the turn to head towards Caribelle Batik/Romney Manor. At the turn, there is a rock with

Carib Indian hieroglyphics. We weren't able to see them very clearly because a man trying desperately to sell us stuff was standing in the way, but we did get a quick picture:

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

We followed the winding roads to Wingfield Estate. We said we wanted to see Wingfield Estate on this our...but Rose's idea of "seeing" it and our idea were slightly different. Her idea was to just see it as we drove right on past it. Our idea to stop and really see it, like we did on our last trip. We did at least manage to get her to stop the van so hubby could jump out and take a couple pictures. There's an ongoing archaeological dig and we could even see from the road that there was progress made since our last trip. Unfortunately on our last trip we didn't get a lot of pictures from this area, but this was the rum distillery in 2013:

 

 

And this was the same location in 2015:

 

 

You can see in the next photo that the distillery is much deeper than before:

 

 

This was all we got to see of the beautiful Wingfield Estate. Now it was on to Romney Manor, home of Caribelle Batik.

 

This is a new addition to Caribelle Batik since our last visit:

 

 

This is the new entrance building to the Batik. They started charging admission I think as of the beginning of October. We were not charged on our visit but they said it was going to start soon. I think the charge is going to be around $4 or $5 a person.

 

There is a large Samaan tree that we didn't really notice on our last trip, so it was nice that Rose pointed this out to us, and she also told us about a lot of the plants and palm trees. That was something we enjoyed about the tour that we didn't have on our last visit.

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did our shopping in the store, helping the local economy more than we had planned, but the items are unique and handcrafted and so different than the other souvenirs we purchased elsewhere. They accepted credit cards for our purchases. This is one of my favorite places on all the islands...there's something about the gorgeous gardens, the bright colors of the building and the batik drying on the lines, the smell of the wax. It takes me back to my 8th grade art class when we did a batik project. I've seriously thought about taking up batik as a hobby!

[valentinebaby1]

Our tour continued after we left Caribelle Batik and we headed towards Brimstone Fortress. Here are a few photos taken at some point (might have been before the batik stop):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SmudgeCat]

Thank you so much for sharing your adventures! Looking forward to the rest of St. Kitts and St. Maarten as we dream about our upcoming trip in December. :)

[valentinebaby1]

Thank you for a great review. I'm really enjoying it! I've never been to St. Kitt's or St. Lucia's and it's been fun to come along with you on your adventures. :)

 

I was afraid that no one was reading it...so thank you for reading and commenting! It's nice to know this isn't for nothing!

 

You should make a point of getting to St Kitts and/or St Lucia some day...they are very different and both magical! We'd definitely go to either on a land vacation if airfare wasn't so expensive!

[valentinebaby1]

Thank you so much for sharing your adventures! Looking forward to the rest of St. Kitts and St. Maarten as we dream about our upcoming trip in December. :)

 

Thanks for reading along! I hope your December trip is wonderful! If you can think of any questions don't hesitate to ask!

[valentinebaby1]

Our next stop was the Brimstone Fortress. We stopped here on our last visit, and didn't necessarily want to stop again, except that the views are so breathtaking from the top! We figured my sis/bil would enjoy it, so we planned in into our tour.

 

The problem was that it was only 10:30am and it was extremely hot! Maybe the stones absorb all the heat and intensify it, I don't know...but it was melt your skin kind of hot. I even pulled out my umbrella for shade once I climbed my way to the top.

 

On our last visit here, we spent a lot of time once we reached the top. We explored all of the fort inside and out. This time I just wasn't feeling it. I don't think my sis/bil were either. It was just too hot. Did I mention it was hot? We didn't spend much time in the fort before the 3 of us headed back down to get some much needed water. I took a bottle with me to the top, but finished it before I even made it to the top! Hubby stayed behind for a few more minutes to take some photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe this is St Eustatius, with Saba a little further behind it:

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

So my final thoughts on Brimstone Fortress...it's a neat place to see once...but it is a lot of work!

[valentinebaby1]

After visiting the gift shop and picking up a few magnets we continued on. We passed this statue along the road. It is a tribute to Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw, who was the first Premier of St Kitts, one who blazed the trail for trade unionism and political rights, and is credited with leading Saint Kitts and Nevis to independence.

 

 

Then we stopped at Dieppe Bay to see the spot where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean Sea. You can see the waves in 2 different directions and you can see the different colored waters...it's a really neat sight!

 

 

And here are another couple shots from along the road:

 

 

 

Our next stop was at the Black Rocks.

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

There are venders in the black rocks area, including some serving food and drinks. We picked up a couple "roti" for lunch. It is a flat bread, almost like a tortilla, filled with a mashed potato, curry and chicken mixture. They are very delicious!

 

We looked for the lady with the monkey from our last visit but she wasn't there. We asked around if anyone knew where she was, and someone thought she had taken ill, someone else thought she was at a different location now...either way we really missed her. She was one of the only venders we encountered who wasn't pushy and demanding. She was quiet and humble. She had a little monkey named Jacques, who you could tell she had a special bond with. He was a pet to her and not just a way to make money. We asked if we could hold Jacques, and how much it cost, and she just said whatever we wanted to pay. She didn't rush us and Jacques was so sweet. We just had a lovely encounter with her so we were sad she wasn't there.

 

We still had the "opportunity" to hold a little monkey. Basically he was handed to us and then money was demanded...which wasn't a big deal since we wanted to do that again, but it just wasn't the same experience. And this little booger bit me a couple times! He was not sweet like little Jacques!

 

 

 

We wanted time at the beach before heading back to ship. We chose to go back to Shipwreck Beach, which is where we went the last time and had to head over Timothy Hill to get there. We wanted to be sure to stop here and get photos and had told Rose this, but when we got to the area she just drove right past the stopping point. We told her again that we wanted to stop for photos and she seemed annoyed by this. She couldn't really back up, so she just pulled over and the road was rough and there was construction stuff in the way so we didn't even all get out at this point. Hubby jumped out and had to run back up the hill to get a couple photos, which was kind of a bummer that we didn't get to do this together.

 

 

 

 

 

[moniquet]

Really look forward to see if you have posted more photos, thanks. We missed seeing the fort last time and would like to visit this time, worried the climb might be too much for us as we are getting on a bit:D

[valentinebaby1]

Really look forward to see if you have posted more photos, thanks. We missed seeing the fort last time and would like to visit this time, worried the climb might be too much for us as we are getting on a bit:D

 

Of course it depends on your health, but I'm getting older (45) and quite fluffy so obviously not in great shape and I survived it :) It is quite a hike up the hill. I stopped a couple times to "take pictures"...lol

Edited October 28, 2015 by valentinebaby1

[valentinebaby1]

We made our way down Timothy Hill and on to Shipwreck Beach. Rose wanted to take us to a different beach, I believe Carambola Beach Club, but we wanted Shipwreck because we really enjoyed our time there on our last visit.

 

I would have sworn we were at a different place. It was totally different. The beach has eroded away to almost nothing. There were maybe a total of 6-8 other people at the beach besides us. The beach used to have beach chairs 2 rows deep, and now one row barely fits on what's left of the sand. When you walk down the steps to the beach from the bar you are practically in the water. The dock is gone. The roped off area is gone. It was really sad to see such a dramatic change.

 

We only had about an hour or so to spend here, and we had to be sure to dry off as not to get Rose's van's seats wet. So that didn't really leave us much time to do anything. Hubby and my sis snorkeled. I found a couple shells and talked with a fellow cruiser and cc member but just didn't feel like there was enough time to snorkel.

 

Hubby barely took any photos. Most of what he took was snorkeling. I wanted to show a comparison of the same beach from our last visit and realized he didn't take any photos of the beach. I found this online:

 

This is what it looked like in 2013:

 

This is what it looked like in 2015:

 

Big difference, huh? We had talked up this beach as being pretty wonderful...so it was such a letdown.

 

Here are a few other pictures hubby took: