Just off the Serenade Dec 10-17

[itsanita]

We are on the SOS next year, in an aft cabin. We booked because we got a great deal and its a members cruise. I'm thrilled to hear such great things about the ship. But.....what are the Pitons and what is Monserrat?

I obviously have not looked into this itinerary yet!!!

[Ocean Boy]

The Pitons of St. Lucia are the remains of two extinct volcanos. They are located at land's end where the island meets the sea. They are quite dramatic.

 

Montserrat is an island which has a volcano. I don't remember the year but when it erupted it buried a town is ash. You can see tops of buildings sticking up out of the ash and also what remains of the cruise ship pier sticking out of the ash and into the sea. Again, amazingly dramatic.

[Phamer55]

What are the logistics to get to Trunk Bay? I've seen photos of the beach and it looks incredible. How much is the ferry? How often does it run? Is there a restaurant on the beach? How much is the cab fair to get to the ferry?

[anankae]

Montserrat is an island which has a volcano. I don't remember the year but when it erupted it buried a town is ash. You can see tops of buildings sticking up out of the ash and also what remains of the cruise ship pier sticking out of the ash and into the sea. Again, amazingly dramatic.

The name of the volcano is Soufriere Hills. It first erupted in 1995 after being dormant for a zillion years, and has erupted a few times since then. If you live near an IMAX and they're showing the feature "Forces of Nature", the film features the volcano and shows a Soufriere eruption. What pretty much destroyed the towns were the pyroclastic flows. Impressive to watch.

[anankae]

This was the cruise I went on. :) :) :)

 

In San Juan, we ate at a cute place called Aguaviva. Pricy but tasty, raw oysters and ceviche, awesome mojitos and watermelon sangria. Was kind of funny, flying to San Juan, where one is in the United States but it felt more foreign to me than Mexico. In Cozumel, everyone speaks English, ran into quite a few people that spoke no English at all in San Juan. Communicating didn't seem to be a problem tho, hand gestures and repeated queries seemed to get the point across. Took a couple minutes to get the cabbie to understand we wanted Diamond Palace as he proncounced it dee-a-mone pah-la. Then there was the cabbie that spoke excellent English, good grammar, used idioms and slang but with such a heavy accent he was difficult to understand, never ran across that before.

 

Our shore excursions. Didn't do anything in St. Thomas. As beautiful as it was, it was still the US! Give me something foreign! We kind of just vegged in our cabin since the rest of the trip was going to be busy and I was sort of mentally gearing up for it.

 

St Maarten. The best excursion of them all, we did the America's Cup regatta, it was so cool. Highly recommend it.

 

Antigua. Did the helicopter ride over Montserrat. Pricey but extremely cool. My partner was annoyed by the other two on our ride who he thought asked dumb questions all the way there and back but they didn't bug me as much as they did him. Ran into the "Caribbean lifestyle" here as we got back and then sat around for about half an hour before I asked "when are we going back to the ship?" At which point they jumped up and loaded us into the van.

 

St. Lucia. We did the cruise on the Brig Unicorn, the ship they used for the Black Pearl in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. This was the most disappointing one, mainly cause they motored over and back, they put up 3 sails but it was more for show I think. When we got to Pigeon Island, they did a mock cannon fight and the people on the island surrendered to us, that was cute. Was a nice place to swim and relax, drank quite a bit and got tipsy. Then got back and did some shopping and helped myself to a couple jiggers of rum from the sampler bottles the liquor stores have and got even more tipsy. While I knew the ship was leaving early, I lost track of the time (travelling makes me lose my time sense) and went back to the ship to get a coupon (intending to go back out) to find out it was 4:10 and they were pulling in the railings! That's the closest I've ever cut it going back. Found out later it was so we could do the sail-by past the Pitons while it was still daylight. Our shore excursion was cut short about an hour because of it.

 

Barbados. The flattest and most commercial island of them all, docking there was like docking at Galveston! We did a Tiami catamaran snorkeling thing which turned out to be much better than I was expecting. Thought they booked too many guests on board (there were about 50) but once they spread out to the front, back and top of the deck cover it wasn't too bad. They did motor out till they got a good breeze and then they put up the sails and we sailed and it was quite pleasant. The lunch was excellent, the crew was fun, we saw cute widdle sea turtles. They had 2 glitches, the stereo wasn't working and the soda machine wasn't working, they fixed the stereo and picked up a few bottles of coke onshore (which didn't last long) but I discovered the most tasty drink -- coconut rum and pineapple juice. Didn't get quite so juiced on this one but I think it's cause they fed us quite well.

 

It was so neat I booked our next cruise on board. Found out you have to make an appointment so I looked and the entire day was open, scribbled my name down and went back an hour later to find every slot filled and someone trying to take my appointment spot! (they didn't succeed) My boyfriend expressed a desire to go to St. Kitts. Claimed with a name like that, it had to be the patron saint of buxom barmaids and the island full of lusty vixens. So I booked on Empress, the only ship which sails to St. Kitts!

[redwings1958]

What are the logistics to get to Trunk Bay? I've seen photos of the beach and it looks incredible. How much is the ferry? How often does it run? Is there a restaurant on the beach? How much is the cab fair to get to the ferry?

To get to Trunk bay, take a cab to red hook. Take the ferry to St, John, then take a cab to Trunk bay.

1. The ferry from red hook to ST. John runs every hour. (about a 15 minute trip). I believe the ferry cost $5pp

2. The cab will run you $20 to/from the ship to red hook.

3. Yes there is a place to eat in trunk bay. (BTW, it is a Nat'l park so there is an admission fee)