Trip Report: 12-night Holiday Cruise in the Caribbean on the SILHOUETTE (2018)

[Hot Larry]

Linda,

Excellent journal of your cruise adventure. Your time and energy sharing the details, photos, and opinions I truly appreciate. The photos of the Celebrity Edge were very interesting, my girlfriend and I are on the Edge for a seven day cruise leaving 02/24. In closing, thanks for sharing your family with us, they're amazing. Be well and safe travels...........Larry

[2B A VTer]

Linda,

I have had an enjoyable day reading your cruise review today.  My dh and I are on this 12 day cruise March 24th.  Love the humor and details.

[FRMPEI]

On ‎1‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 3:40 PM, SleepingUgly said:

Day 9 – St. Lucia (cont.)
 

....- the first time I've seen Dr. Pepper (nectar of the gods) since I've stepped foot on the cruise ship.  I knew I loved St. Lucia for a reason.

 

 

 

 

Linda,

 

Now you have taken this trip report to far with your Dr. Pepper comment. It has to be the nastiest soft drink ever. My Son, Nolan, Loves it but, here is my take on Dr. Pepper. If In the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse and if I was dying of thirst and came across a vending machine with only ice cold Dr. Pepper in it... I would pass.

 

Still Love reading your adventure.  Keep it coming

 

Regards,
Kevin Reid

[SleepingUgly]

On 1/26/2019 at 11:22 PM, chamima said:

 

 

When did you find out that St. Lucia would be a tender port?

We've been there many times and we've always docked.

We'll be on the Silhouette in a couple of weeks and so far our schedule just says "docked"

 

Ans, yes, our experience with Celebrities tendering process is that it always seems like the first time they've ever done it.

It's amazing that other cruiselines can do it efficiently isn't it?

 

Hi Karen:

 

We found out the same day they changed our first port from Punta Cana to St. Thomas (first full day of the cruise).  According to some of the more seasoned cruisers we talked to, it is much more costly to dock at a port rather than tender.  Thus, when we had to dock in St. Thomas (instead of tendering in Punta Cana), they may have decided to offset this cost by tendering in St. Lucia instead of docking.  I don't mind tendering, but you'd think they'd know how to run the system by now.  Just wasn't a good experience overall.

 

Linda

  

[SleepingUgly]

18 hours ago, snow bunny said:

Linda, as someone getting on the Silhouette in two weeks I want to express my thanks for your review!  I am so excited to escape our brutal weather and enjoy being back on her for our third time!

 

snow bunny aka Missy

 

Hi Missy:

 

Luck you!  I wish I was going on vacation again ... even though I've been home for only a few weeks, haha.  This winter is killing me and it's not even February yet.  Ugh.  I hope you have a fantastic time!!

 

Linda

 

[SleepingUgly]

16 hours ago, Hot Larry said:

Linda,

Excellent journal of your cruise adventure. Your time and energy sharing the details, photos, and opinions I truly appreciate. The photos of the Celebrity Edge were very interesting, my girlfriend and I are on the Edge for a seven day cruise leaving 02/24. In closing, thanks for sharing your family with us, they're amazing. Be well and safe travels...........Larry

 

Hi Larry - Wow!  Am I ever honored to have been the recipient of your first ever post here on CC!  Thanks for checking in and following along.  I hope you have a fantastic time on the Edge!  Safe travels to you, wherever you may go!

 

Linda

 

[SleepingUgly]

16 hours ago, 2B A VTer said:

Linda,

I have had an enjoyable day reading your cruise review today.  My dh and I are on this 12 day cruise March 24th.  Love the humor and details.

 

Hello - Thanks for following along!  You will have a great time on this cruise.  We loved the Silhouette and wish we could have spent more time with her, there were so many things we still wanted to do and places we wanted to check out on her.  Maybe next time.  

 

Have a great vacation, and safe journeys!

 

Linda

 

[SleepingUgly]

3 hours ago, FRMPEI said:

Linda,

 

Now you have taken this trip report to far with your Dr. Pepper comment. It has to be the nastiest soft drink ever. My Son, Nolan, Loves it but, here is my take on Dr. Pepper. If In the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse and if I was dying of thirst and came across a vending machine with only ice cold Dr. Pepper in it... I would pass.

 

Still Love reading your adventure.  Keep it coming

 

Regards,
Kevin Reid

 

Ah, Kevin, your son Nolan has great taste.  Excellent taste, in fact.  Dr. Pepper cannot be beat.  I've been drinking that stuff since high school (too many moons ago) and I've since introduced my children to it.  My oldest would rather drink that than alcohol in college, haha.  Then again, we're talking about $8 bottles of vodka in college so can you really blame her?  If you are ever down our way, especially in North Carolina, tell your son to pick up a drink called Cheerwine.  It is my absolute favorite.  Not as cough syrupy as Dr. Pepper, but more cherry-soda tasting.  But not bad, manufactured cherry soda, but good, old-fashioned fountain soda.  It originated in Salisbury, NC, where I lived for a few years as a young'un.  If your son likes Dr. Pepper, he will love Cheerwine.  As for you ... well, I will make sure to stock some Belvedere for you in case of a Zombie Apocalpyse.

 

Linda

 

[SleepingUgly]

So sorry for not having posted in a couple of days (all weekend!).  It was my husband's birthday on Sunday so we were quite busy as our oldest daughter also came home from college to help us celebrate, and she made her boyfriend join us as well.  If you were wondering just how old and boring we are, here's what my husband asked for his birthday - a new knife sharpener.  I mean, seriously.  Who the heck did I marry???

 

We went out to Chima's to celebrate on Saturday night.  Has anyone else been?  We do enjoy going there for special occasions.  It's a Brazilian steakhouse with an awesome salad bar, and they go from table to table, with different cuts of meat for you to try, from filet mignon to flank steak to fish and (my favorite) picanha.  You walk in hungry, and you roll out, stuffed for the next two days. 

 

For you fans of my little one ... only she would go to a steak house and pig out on romaine lettuce.  She loves the stuff.  I think she had few small bites of steak, but other than that, it was beans and lettuce for her.  And her dessert, of course.  Can't forget the main course for her.

 

Anyway, I'll make sure to post more tonight ... I promise to finish this trip report soon.  Hopefully, before I go on our next cruise, haha.

 

[Sheal]

Yeah!  You're ok after all.  I was afraid the lions had you for lunch.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the vacation!

 

[micheleata]

Anxious to read more!!!   We often go to Rodizio grill,  but favor Texas De Brazil as they have this sweet/hot chicken and grilled pineapple that has been injected with sugar water!  Love the Picanha also, and the Lamb.

 

 

[snow bunny]

2 hours ago, SleepingUgly said:

 

Hi Missy:

 

Luck you!  I wish I was going on vacation again ... even though I've been home for only a few weeks, haha.  This winter is killing me and it's not even February yet.  Ugh.  I hope you have a fantastic time!!

 

Linda

 

Going to feel like -53C which is something like -63F in the morning!!  Just hoping our cold spell snaps quickly!

[SleepingUgly]

Day 9 – St. Lucia (cont.)

 

OK, now, where were we?  Oh, yes.  We had pretty much finished our excursion in Soufriere and were back in the van, to drive back to the little pier area, where we will take the boat to take us back to the Castries port. 

 

Once in the van, we drove a short while back to the little dock at Soufriere.  Some scenes around this dock area ...

 

We sat around and waited for about 10 minutes or so before the boat came back to pick us up.

 

Someone had another little meltdown at the pier.  Couldn't really blame her, though.  It had been a long day.  She ended up sleeping on my lap the entire boat ride back to Castries.  Even in all the rain.

 

It wasn’t the power cat that picked us up this time, with the shaded covering overhead, but the small power boat with no overhead cover.  Usually, I wouldn’t care a whit about that, but on the trip back to Castries, it poured.  And I mean, it POURED.  Not the entire time, but we suffered through three, serious storms, each lasting at least five minutes or so.  We could do nothing but sit there and get drenched and drenched some more.  Is it possible to get wetter after you are already wet?  I think I now can honestly say … HELL YEAH.

 

The worst of the storms started just as we were pulling into the dock in Castries around 3 pm … after we had just finished drying out from the previous storm, of course.  It was pouring buckets as the boat docked and we rushed to get out so we could go stand under the covers of the nearby stores and kiosks.  A pretty sight, we were not.  But the kids thought it was hilarious and were laughing like crazy.  I’m glad they saw the positive in everything, but we really looked like a bunch of lunatics, standing around, dripping wet, and cackling our heads off.  I’m sure the locals thought we were all a bit loco ourselves.

 

When the rain finally stopped, we dried ourselves off as best as we could … with wet towels, ha!  We put on our damp clothes over our swimsuits and figured, what the heck.  We’re on vacation and I’m sure people have seen worse (maybe not MUCH worse, but I’m sure they’ve seen worse).  By then the sun was out so we decided to walk around the stands a bit and shop.  No one cared about our bedraggled state, which just goes to show you how welcoming and accommodating the locals were.  Or tolerant.  Or blind. 

We got a few little things in the market, and then trudged back to the terminal.  The girls and I wanted to look around some more, but dh was carrying all five wet towels and they were getting heavier and heavier.  Or he was getting weaker and weaker ... hey, I didn't marry Chris Hemsworth, you know.  Anyway, he decided to go back to the ship first and we stayed and looked around a bit more.

[SleepingUgly]

Day 9 – St. Lucia (cont.)

 

So here’s an idea of what the crazy weather gods were up to that afternoon.  Notice the partly cloudy skies as we were pulling into the pier at Castries.  Not even one minute after that, it was completely dark and pouring on us.  Again, it was POURING.  All breeds of cat and dog – and the mixed breeds in between too – were falling from the sky.  It was nuts.

 

Later on, as the girls and I left the terminal, it was cloudy and drizzling.  Apparently, when we were inside the stores, it had poured again.  You can see how cloudy it is from this picture that dh took while he was on the tender, and we were in line for the next one.

 

Dh's tender pulled away, and the next tender came immediately after that.  Look how sunny it was once again.

 

It continued to be sunny as we headed back to the Silhouette.  In fact, it continued to be sunny until … you guessed it … the tender parked right next to the ship.  And then the skies opened up again.  Holy Moses, where is all this rain coming from?

 

You can kind of see the clouds start to move in as we got closer to the Silhouette.  We were hoping to beat them, but no such luck for us.

 

As you can see from the pictures, the little one had the brilliant idea of sitting outside on the upper deck of the tender.  Never again will she be deciding anything for us.  Once again, we were doused with rain.  And it takes a while to exit the upper deck because you have to climb down this steep, narrow ladder to get to the main level, and then step off the tender onto the ship.  At first, it was a zipper merge – one person from the upper deck would descend and get off the tender, and one person from the lower deck – WHERE THEY WERE WARM AND DRY – would get off the tender after that.  Until some good folks down below figured out we were melting out there; perhaps our high-pitched screeching and manic screaming tipped them off.  They were kind enough to let all of us descend first.  One super-nice gentleman even helped my little one down much more quickly than she would have been able to do so on her own on those slippery steps.  Thank you to everyone who let us down first and thanks to everyone who helped us!

 

We rushed off the tender and onto the ship.  The four of us stood in the security line, shivering like we’d been cast out in the snow.  Nekked.  One of the ship’s officers was there and saw us, and she ran off to grab a huge pile of warm towels .  She chased us to the elevator banks, where we were waiting for the next car, and gave us each two warm towels so we could dry ourselves and wrap the other one around us.  Now THIS is the Celebrity service I’m talking about.  So appreciative of her and her quick thinking and consideration for us.  Or maybe she just didn’t want us dripping rain all over the carpeting, haha.

 

We dragged ourselves back to the cabins and fought each other to see who would shower first.  Being supreme leader of the family, I of course didn’t have to fight anyone and just jumped right in.  Dh had been back in the room already for a while and had showered, and was out on the balcony taking pictures.  After my shower, I plopped down on the bed and promptly fell asleep for the next 1.5 hours.  Best. Nap. Ever. #isaythatabouteverynap

 

[ktmush2]

6 hours ago, SleepingUgly said:

 

Ah, Kevin, your son Nolan has great taste.  Excellent taste, in fact.  Dr. Pepper cannot be beat.  I've been drinking that stuff since high school (too many moons ago) and I've since introduced my children to it.  My oldest would rather drink that than alcohol in college, haha.  Then again, we're talking about $8 bottles of vodka in college so can you really blame her?  If you are ever down our way, especially in North Carolina, tell your son to pick up a drink called Cheerwine.  It is my absolute favorite.  Not as cough syrupy as Dr. Pepper, but more cherry-soda tasting.  But not bad, manufactured cherry soda, but good, old-fashioned fountain soda.  It originated in Salisbury, NC, where I lived for a few years as a young'un.  If your son likes Dr. Pepper, he will love Cheerwine.  As for you ... well, I will make sure to stock some Belvedere for you in case of a Zombie Apocalpyse.

 

Linda

 

Guess you wouldn't want me to mention Dr. Pepper and Blackberry Brandy??? Kinda sweet but delish.

 

[FRMPEI]

Linda,

 

Nothing worse then being captive when it is raining on you. Really what else can you do but, smile and take it?  You were all troopers this day.  When reading your story I was thinking back to our wet day in Jamaica 2013 on this very same Silhouette.  Donna and I were on the chair lift going up Mystic Mountain and it started pouring and we got soaked. On the trip back down the mountain we were nice and dry, sun shining, then the heavens open up again and soaked us. It was a very wet drive back from Ocho Rios to Falmouth.

 

Regards, 

Kevin 

Edited January 29, 2019 by FRMPEI

[SleepingUgly]

Day 9 – St. Lucia (cont.)

 

The kids finally woke me up from my nap – I think they had to pull on my hair quite a bit and also screamed about some shoe sale at Neimans just to get my attention – and we got dressed to go to dinner.  While I was asleep, dh got some nice sailaway photos, including another rainbow!

 

Service in the MDR was on point that night!  We were in and out in 4500 seconds.  Seventy-five minutes.  One hour and 15 minutes.  That included dh’s precious, after-dinner espresso.  Perfect.

 

So I didn't take a picture of the menu that night, but did get a picture of the kids' and dessert menus.  #dealwithit

 

 

By the time dinner ended, our middle child had ditched us yet again in favor of her friends.  The oldest and youngest – who will never, ever leave us (God bless them) – trailed behind dh and me as we went to the Grand Foyer.  They were setting up for Silent Disco that evening, and I was determined we would, once and for all, find out what the fascination is with this event.

 

Well, I think I kind of get it now.  While I still don’t know why it’s as popular as it is on these boards, we did have a lot of fun.  Actually, we had a blast!  But the way people were talking, I thought it was something revolutionary and life-changing, something they’ve never experienced before.  To me, it was pretty much as if you are listening to songs on your own and dancing by yourself.  I mean, don’t we all do that in our bedrooms anyway?  Anyone … anyone … Bueller …?  No?  OK, well, then maybe I CAN see the attraction in it, haha.  I will admit, it may actually be much more entertaining for those watching the participants, or maybe it’s just more fun because, with the headphones on, you tend to lose your inhibitions (since I can’t hear anyone, that must mean no one can see me – makes sense, right?) so you end up having more fun.  Anyway, the girls had a blast so yet another win in our books.

 

We hung out at the Silent Disco until @ 11 pm, and then walked the girls back to the cabins as the little one was tired (and so was the oldest!).  They stayed in the cabin and dh and I went to the casino to see if we would get lucky that night.  Nope, didn't happen.  I lost another $100 on the penny slots, this time in something like 20 minutes.  That’s just not even any fun so I didn’t want to continue.  What made it worse was I sat next to some lady who kept winning free games on her machine and I was getting nothing.  Ugh, so frustrating.  So I gave up and went looking for dh.  I found him at a table and watched him play three-card poker for a while and we ended up leaving after a short while.  He lost $65 for the night and I lost $100.  Not too shabby as we were still up for the trip, but just not as much fun.  I probably would have actually spent more money (and, thus, lost more) had I experienced more ups, but when I just kept losing one spin after another, it was not worth it to keep going. Besides, I was tired.  We went back to the room and went to sleep almost right away.  Tomorrow - our last port: St. Kitts!  

 

[SleepingUgly]

On 1/29/2019 at 11:24 AM, FRMPEI said:

Linda,

 

Nothing worse then being captive when it is raining on you. Really what else can you do but, smile and take it?  You were all troopers this day.  When reading your story I was thinking back to our wet day in Jamaica 2013 on this very same Silhouette.  Donna and I were on the chair lift going up Mystic Mountain and it started pouring and we got soaked. On the trip back down the mountain we were nice and dry, sun shining, then the heavens open up again and soaked us. It was a very wet drive back from Ocho Rios to Falmouth.

 

Regards, 

Kevin 

 

Kevin - I think you had it much worse than us. We were at least in swimsuits and had been wet anyway during the day.  It would be awful to be caught in a downpour wearing street clothes!  But, you are right.  We just have to grin and bear it, and be thankful we were on vacation.  Especially considering the cold surrounding most of us today!

 

Linda

 

[SleepingUgly]

On 1/28/2019 at 9:36 PM, ktmush2 said:

Guess you wouldn't want me to mention Dr. Pepper and Blackberry Brandy??? Kinda sweet but delish.

 

 

Never heard of that!  I will have to look into it.

[effinaround]

Linda, I echo your sentiments regarding the silent disco as it was a "once and done" for me. Still, the 60 something french woman doing the Travolta to Stayin' Alive was memorable.

 

Loving your review on a bitterly cold January day. You're a natural at this.  

[SleepingUgly]

Day 10 – St. Kitts

 

 

 

Ah, we wake to another glorious, beautiful day.  The weather gods have been good to us on this trip.  Note to self – must sacrifice extra goats and sheep and children when we are home to thank the weather gods.  Wait ... no, back up.  I got that wrong.  Can't sacrifice the sheep.  Need to keep them for the wool sweaters this winter.

 

Dh and I woke a little before 7 am and just hung out on the balcony.  It would be the last time on this trip that we got to watch the ship pull into port.  Fort Lauderdale doesn’t count.

 

I took the opportunity to take pictures of both of our balconies this morning.  The first photo is the balcony for dh and my cabin; the second photo is the balcony for the girls' cabin.  I took the pictures standing smack dab in the middle, between the two balconies.  You can see the first balcony (Cabin 9380) is slightly bigger, while the second balcony (Cabin 9382) is regulation-sized.

 

 

We woke the girls up around 8 am and discussed what we would do that day.  The original plan was to go to the beach at South Frigate Bay and just hang out there for most of the day.  We had visited this beach on our last visit to St. Kitts in 2007, based on the recommendation of our dining room waiter (Tomas, from the Czech Republic; he was great!).  We had loved the location – not too crowded, with plenty of amenities, and beer for $2 a bottle (dh has dreams of this beach every now and then).  So we figured it would have been nice to pay a return visit for our last port stop.  A nice, relaxing day at the beach … before returning to the frigid, arctic cold that was awaiting us.

 

However, it was obvious that the beach would not have been the best option for us that day.  It was super-duper insanely windy!  So, once again, I put on my “I Can Be Spontaneous” smile on my face (my kids say I look bitter ... or angry … or constipated … or all three combined) and we tossed some ideas around on what to do for the day.  My slacker, lazy-ass family of course knew naught of the island, having done the same amount of research about this vacation that Donald Trump apparently has done on global warming.  So, it was up to me to enlighten them on what this island is all about.  I told them that, personally, I really wanted to see Brimstone Fort, and told them about Timothy Hill, where we would be able to see both the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.  Well, they may be slackers but they are affable, easy-going slackers.  Those places sounded cool to them, so we decided that we would try something we’d not done before … we were going to get off the ship and find a taxi driver and do an island tour that would be spur-of-the-moment, spontaneous, and unplanned.  Wait … is that repetitive?  Or redundant?  Or maybe I’m just saying the same thing over and over again.

 

[SleepingUgly]

3 hours ago, effinaround said:

Linda, I echo your sentiments regarding the silent disco as it was a "once and done" for me. Still, the 60 something french woman doing the Travolta to Stayin' Alive was memorable.

 

Loving your review on a bitterly cold January day. You're a natural at this.  

 

I think I enjoyed watching others dancing a lot more than dancing myself.  This one guy was seriously getting DOWN.  I found myself switching to whatever channel he was listening to just so I could follow along with his performance.

 

Stay warm!!

 

Linda

 

[SleepingUgly]

Day 10 – St. Kitts (cont.)

 

We headed out to – where else? – the Oceanview Café for breakfast.  This is what the hallway looks like as we exit our rooms … looks like quite the walk, no?  Well, it was but I think it was also the reason why I gained absolutely no weight on this trip … despite having eaten pretty much half my weight in corned beef hash and drank the other half in various martinis.

 

The buffet wasn’t too crowded but, for some reason, the service was really poor that morning.  Maybe that’s because it was getting closer to the end of a long cruise and people were getting tired and snarky and cranky.  Who the heck knows.  The girl serving oatmeal that morning was a good example.  She was just not helpful at all, and when I asked if any toppings for the oatmeal would be set out (none was available and it was already 8.30 am), she just looked at me with a blank stare, as if I had just asked her to explain where ultra-high energy particles come from.  Who knows, maybe she could have actually answered that question for me.  My usual experience in the buffet has been that, even before I ask for something – if I’m just looking around like I’m looking for something – someone asks me right away how they can assist.  I’ve seen this consistently in the buffet with others as well, so to see someone so obviously disinterested in her job and in helping the guests was just a bit jarring, after having seen and experienced the complete opposite the past days.  This girl just stood there and kept stirring the grits and oatmeal, and as people walked up to her and asked her questions, she would just look at them with a bored expression on her face.  I finally gave up and went in search of something else (cough … corned beef hash … cough) instead.  I was hungry and wasn’t in the mood to wait!

 

After breakfast, we went back to the cabin to get our stuff and then got off the ship.  We had our usual obligatory photos taken by the ship’s photographers, who were like old friends by this time.

 

Of course, we took some photos of our own as well before exiting the port area.

 

We entered the open-air terminal and asked at a kiosk about tours.  The only options provided was a tour that would include Brimstone Fort and other attractions near it, or another tour that would include Timothy Hill and other attractions near that spot.  The two things I really wanted to see on the island were kind of on opposite ends of St. Kitts, so the standard tours included one or the other, but not both.

 

Undaunted, we ventured outside to where taxi drivers stood around, just watching people walking past them.  That was odd … in most other ports, the taxi drivers would be pretty persistent, calling out as cruise passengers wandered past.  Wouldn't you know it ... the one time we needed to hire a taxi, no one is interested in us.  Except, just then, a young man, standing pretty far away, called out to us.  Not in a creepy “hey stupid American tourists, come over here and I’ll rip you off” kind of way, but rather a friendly “hey, you want a tour and I need to make money; let’s help each other out” way.  I’m all about entrepreneurship and this young man looked like he was eager for work and also looked like a happy sort of fella, so we went to talk to him. 

 

I liked how, upon meeting him, he asked right away what we wanted to see and what we wanted to do, instead of telling us what he can do for us.  So I told him of the two places I really wanted to see, and he immediately agreed to take us to both locations, and could even include a quick stop at Romney Manor.  Cost would be $25 per person, and we would have to pay our own way into the Fort, which is $10 per adult and $5 per child.  That was more than reasonable for us so we agreed.  He then asked if it was OK that two other passengers joined us (they were the ones who wanted to see Romney Manor) and we said that was totally fine; the more the merrier.  So off we went with Leroy “Billy” to his van.  By now, it was @ 10 am, and we were finally off on our tour!

 

[SleepingUgly]

Day 10 – St. Kitts (cont.)

 

Leroy “Bill” – whatever his name was – was a super nice, extremely talkative guide.  He had his own little microphone set so that we could all hear him clearly in the van, no matter where we sat.  While driving through Batteserre heading towards Romney Manor, he drove extremely slowly.  And I mean, ssssslllllooooowwwwwlllllyyyyy.  He pulled over and let everyone pass us, including a snail hitching a ride on a turtle.  But all the time, he was talking away, telling us all about St. Kitts history and culture, her people and their traditions, the sights and scenery.  He was obviously very proud of his island – as he should be – and it really showed.  He was a great tour guide.

 

At one point, he stopped to let us get out to enjoy the view and get some pictures of the landscape around us.  It was a lovely pace for a tour – not too frenetic, with time to actually get out and see things and enjoy where we were.

 

This was the van we rode in for our tour that day.  Nice, seemingly new and very clean van.

 

We soon made it to Wingfield Estates at Romney Manor; it was probably around 10.40 am or so by this time.  I don’t think we visited the entire estate because we didn’t pay any entrance fee, but Leroy let us off the van and told us to walk around for a bit, and then he’d meet up with us in about 15 minutes or so.  Had I really wanted to see the entire estate in detail, I would have been very disappointed with this.  However, since our main goal was to get to Brimstone Fort – and I honestly didn’t care about no manor or estate or plantation or what have you – we just went with what he said and enjoyed our walk.

[SleepingUgly]

Day 10 – St. Kitts (cont.)

 

Some more pictures of our time at Wingfield Estates.  Apparently, the first crops grown here, starting in the 1600s, west mostly tobacco.  It became sugar after a short while because that was so much more in demand.  Just a few years ago, they discovered a long-buried rum distillery here as well.  Rum was probably produced at this site dating back to around 1681.  So, there you have it – tobacco, sugar and alcohol, all in one location. Ladies and gentlemen – site of the first frat house.

 

Leroy then came to meet us and took us on a small walk through a path in the forest.  He showed us how to swing on a vine hanging from a tall tree.  Dh and our oldest tried it out as well.  I didn’t plan ahead and purchase extra life insurance, so was glad that they both survived and made it back to land OK.

 

 

As we walked back towards the van, we saw the real attraction of Wingfield Estates – goats!  Yes, my children are apparently so enamored with farm animals that they went off, chasing goats and bleating at them as if they were actually carrying on a real, live conversation.  For all they knew, their bleats were insults to the goats’ mothers.  Anyway, to them, this was the real attraction of this stop.  Who would have thunk?

 

The first sighting ...

 

OMG, it's a goat!  And, no, it's not Tom Brady (ugh, old cheater goat).

 

There's more of them!

 

There's Leroy in the background, shaking his head at the stupid tourists who are so fascinated with goats.

 

And here we are, being ignored by said goats, who obviously have more class and good taste than any of us.