Barbados - trip review

[SqueakyDust]

TRIP REVIEW

OCEAN VILLAGE – 29TH NOVEMBER TO 13TH DECEMBER 2005,

CARIBBEAN CRUISE

 

Tuesday, 6th December 2005

BARBADOS

 

Still LOVE the island, but boy has it developed since we've last been there!

As we were doing a back-to-back cruise we got a slip of paper to carry with our onboard passes to show this, and this meant we did not have to clear customs.

We hired our car from Stoutes, via the net, with no problems whatsoever. Their little hut is just outside the cruise terminal and eventhough we were later getting onshore than expected everything was ready and waiting for us. I think we were only USD$ 88.00 but that was without fuel. We put in USD$10 at a nearby station and still had about a 1/3 left after a full day. The Stoutes guy marked on the maps (he gave us 2) the areas we wanted to get to and showed us the best way to start off. We managed the turning at the security gate fine and were soon on the West Coast road making out way to the Wildlife Reserve. We stopped in by Folkestone, which has a beautiful beach.

We found the Reserve easily and as we parked at the back we went to what turned out to be the Grenada Hall and Rainforest part first. We paid here – US$40 for 2 adults & 2 children. We got our change in Barbadian dollars and were asked if we had smaller notes, than the $50 note we initially offered. We walked up to the Hall and had a quick look around. There are great views of the East Coast from the top windows. Sadly we didn’t take in the History as the call of nature promptly brought us back to the Reserve! The kids just loved this and we could easily have spent a whole day here if we'd been staying on Barbados. There were loads of Tortoises (some trying to make more too which was fun explaining to the kids!), cute little deer and things called Maro's which are like a giant rabbit/deer cross.

We even saw a baby one trying to hide, which was gorgeous. In another section there is a huge snake, which had killed it's mate!, loads of Iguana, Flamingoes, tropical Birds, Pelican, Alligators, a walk through Aviary... But NO monkeys! We met Spike who lives in his own cage. We were wondering if this was because he was naughty, as he was very noisy. However, one of the staff came over, let him out and explained that he was there for his own protection. Because he could do tricks and speak the other Parrots in the large aviary attacked him (except for his parents). He did some tricks for us and says “Hello” in a very posh English accent! There is a restaurant and a small shop selling refreshments. They had T shirts, which weren’t very prominent. I wish I’d bought some as I never saw them anywhere else. Afterwards we set back off to the rainforest bit and were told that there had been Monkey sightings that day. It is a very long and undulating walk, which is rather steep in places. Wear good shoes as it's slippy even when it's dry! We heard lots of noises but never even saw a monkey tail :( Purely down to luck. Another family did see one but their baby scared it away!!

Hubby then decided he wanted to see Bathsheba again before going to Harrisons Caves. Again we found this easily and had a nice walk along the beach. Loads of fallen coconuts.

We did get a little lost trying to find Harrisons Caves from here but only for about 5 minutes. The best road signs are inland (i.e. for attractions) and this is the only way you can navigate as the maps don’t have street names and not all streets are named. However, if lost, just ask.

There is a large carpark at the Caves. At the bottom there were several huts. We weren’t sure if these were shops or what, but they weren’t open if they were. Watch out for the hens/roosters strutting around – they don’t worry about cars. We bought our tickets for the tour and enjoyed an ice-cream until our tour was called. The toilets were very clean and had soap that smelled of rum! I asked an attendant about them closing and he shrugged his shoulders saying they were still waiting to hear if it was viable?! I wondered if this meant they wanted to make sure they would get enough visitors afterwards to make it worth their while. First of all you see a little show which explains about how Barbados evolved etc, then we boarded our open trams. The tram rolls along fairly slowly so you get a good chance to look around and stops at various points. There are tour guides that explain all about how the caves were discovered. We got dripped on loads but it added to all the fun.

I’m not sure what they want to improve as everything looked fine to me. Maybe there are more formations forming that they want to exhibit? We really enjoyed this trip too, as did the kids.

Afterwards the kids wanted to go to the Aquarium, which was down in Christchurch, so we set off to see if we’d have time. However, we got lost again and I think we went round in wide circles a bit! The rain also started, and was heavy. This made sign reading harder and the roads flooded quit quickly. We abandoned the idea of the Aquarium and eventually found ourselves coming out beside Carlisle Bay. This had been our favourite beach when we came to Barbados on our Honeymoon 16 years ago, and we’d visited on a previous cruise. However, it was raining hard and the traffic was busy so we joined in a slowly made our way back to the terminal. Hubby was pleased with himself that he remembered the way through Bridgetown. We got back at the terminal just before 1700hrs to find most of the shops closed – we were surprised and disappointed at this. One of the large, and more expensive, ones was open. The kids were desperate to buy something so after a lot of umming and aahing DD bought a largish cuddly Monkey and DS bought a little cuddly Flying Fish. As we came out of the terminal there was a bus waiting, to which we were directed on to. This was the shuttle, which we ‘had’ to take. It drove round the back of the buildings where we had arrived a week ago. We could see new guests arriving and q’ing up to get their board passes etc. We simply walked along another line, put our bags etc on the X-ray machine and made our way back onto the ship (gelling our hands as always, prior to boarding) It would have been quicker and easier to walk from the shopping terminal, but if that was what the authorities wanted us to do, then so be it.

We were told later that apparently the flight from Manchester was delayed by 4 hours due to technical difficulties. This meant that there was no sail-away. However, we’d had a busy, but extremely enjoyable day, so after dinner in Plantations we went back to our cabin to watch the latest Herbie movie and were asleep when the ship finally left port.

[Daycare Provider]

:)

I feel as if I was on your trip with you. I can't wait for April of 2007 to go.

 

OOPS sharing

[Sunniebgi]

HI Squeakydust.. Thanks for a great report.

 

Re the last bit about boarding the bus to the ship. I believe this has been done for only the P&0/Ocean Village ships. Due to the homeport status and having to unload and load cargo. The cargo is actually at one end of the shed/terminal and the check-in for the passengers is at the far end from the main cruise terminal. It means you would have to walk through, around and under cargo and equipment. So I guess they did this for safety reasons.. Most people would prefer to walk.. but...

[SqueakyDust]

Ah, thanks for the info Sunnie.

Wouldn't hurt for the Cruise Lines to say this to passengers so they understood. Would stop most of the moaning.