Our day in Barbados

[judyf]

A little late from my Nov. cruise but just realized I forgot to post it on the port board.

 

Barbados: Tuesday: 11/14/06 9::00am to 3:30pm-all aboard

 

We had a blast here. This was my daughter and son in laws favorite port. I like them all as I prefer less commercialize and more local atmosphere. We had booked Glory Tours online and prepaid before we left. We booked the Best of Barbados tour land and sea. A couple we met on the ship wanted to join us. I explained I wasn't sure if there would be room but I thought there might be cause no one else from our roll call booked this tour. They went with us and took a chance and were glad they did.

 

Our paperwork said 9:45-10:00am pick up by the big tree. So we weren't in any hurry to get off the ship, as long as we weren't late. When you arrive in Barbados you have to take a bus, sort of like a tender but on wheels. I heard a lot of people complaining about this but it's Barbados rule. After you see where the bus takes you I can see for safety reasons why they do it this way. It's a fairly long walk, some could not make it and to walk while the buses are transporting others, it just wouldn't be safe, especially with children. We got there about 10:05am, took a little longer then we expected. It started to rain a little as we were getting in the van. Our guide told us he was waiting since 8:30am. We wished we knew that as we would have been there earlier. We were surprised to see we were the only ones on the tour. We had our own private tour. This was great. When we told him our time due back on the ship, we all decided to cut out the orchard part of the tour, as none of us was that excited about that part.

 

First we were off for the sight seeing part of the tour.He turned around and went a different way due to construction which saved us some time. He stopped along the road at a stand where a gentleman had a green monkey and we got to touch it and then he had it jump on the adults heads. It was so cool. Then we realized it was carrying a baby. My grand daughter along with all of us thought this was great. We were even able to pet the baby monkey.

 

Lunch was included in the price, which was $79.00 per adult and less for a child. http://www.glorytours.org/ Here's the link if anyone is interested. This had to be the best tour I've ever booked on a cruise and I've booked a lot that have gotten an A+ but this one was special, read on. Our Guide called ahead due to our time and had our lunch waiting for us, it was really good. We had chicken, which I didn't eat cause it wasn't boneless breast but my grand daughter ate hers and mine. There was rice, potato salad, a sort of baked ziti, and we got a free soft drink. It started to rain some while we were eating as we left it stopped.

 

Now we off to the The Barbados Wildlife Preserve and we thought the one green monkey was cute we saw dozens of them and turtles you had to watch you didn't step on one of them. The deer were right there within an arms length. It was great. We saw so much, we went through fast as we still had the snorkeling part of our tour to do. I think we had 45-60 minutes in the preserve. You could spend more time there but we were happy and saw all we wanted to see. There was a rum punch or soft drink included in the price here at the snack stand. With our drinks in hand we're back in the van headed for the snorkeling with the sea turtles.

 

We get to the glass bottom boat and I'm not sure which was the highlight of this tour because everything was just so great. We get there and we have a glass bottom boat all to ourselves. 6 people. It was so great, especially when we see the other boats I'm sure a ship tour with 50-100's of people in them. I think there was 2 boats and then us at the location. There were turtles already in the area. Our guide feed them some food and they were all around. It was sooo much fun, something you can't do at home that's for sure. We saw Puffer fish with the sea turtles reminded us of Finding Nemo.

 

My grand daughter is still a little skeptical of the water. She wouldn't get in. Finally her father talked her into getting on his back and she did it that way and saw the turtles good, that plus they would come up with their heads out of the water. She loved it. When we asked her what she liked best so far she said all of them, the horses, the monkeys, the beach and the turtles.

 

I highly recommend this tour. We got like two or three ship tours for the price of one. We skipped the orchard part and it was still well worth every penny, we thought it was a great deal. I'm thinking of doing this same tour again in April, as it was that good.

 

I know I'm leaving things out. If I think of anything I will post at a later time as it's getting late now. If you have any questions just ask.

 

Here's a link to our Barbados pictures.

 

http://family.webshots.com/album/556093939wnHYIX

[gasman111]

This sounds exactly what my daughter is looking for. She wants to see monkeys and turtles.

 

Do you remember who your driver was? Also, do you remember where the fruit stand was where the gentleman had the pet monkey?

 

Also, do you remember approximate time when you were at the wildlife reserve and again when you went snorkeling?

 

Thanks

[judyf]

It's a great tour. I'ma ctually here searching for our next visit to Barbados in April and I'm leaning towards booking the same tour again.

 

We left right at 10:05 am or so went straight to the guy with the monkey. They sold necklaces and stuff like that no fruit.

 

We skipped the Orchid Worls cause we were late not the driver.

 

We had lunch and then to the wildlife reserve it was GREAT we had about an hour or so there. I think we were at the snorkel area about 2pm or so I really don't remember times but had plenty of time with the turtles.

 

Hope this helps. I think we had Ricky as a driver.