Wind Surf Trip Report - Caribbean - Southbound

[LRHerman]

2/22/09 Trip Report -- Just wanted to post a summary of our trip as promised (departing Barbados), since I found the postings so helpful in planning our trip.

 

This was our first Windstar cruise and we were overall very happy and satisfied with the cruise.

We've been on many of the large cruise ships and enjoyed the lack of crowds and better service on Wind Surf. Hardly missed the nightly entertainment, since after visiting a different port every day, we were quite tired at night. Dinner was 7:30 - 9:30, so that took up most of the night anyway. The band that played in the lounge every evening were good technically, but quite dry (got the feeling they didn't speak English) and the duo "Rain" that played in the smaller lounge was very good, but did get tiresome after a few nights. Casino was nearly empty every night, so don't expect an exciting

casino scene either. One night we enjoyed a late night visit to the bridge, which has an open-door policy.

 

Thanks to friends we met on cruise critic, we knew to book a few specialty dinners as soon as we checked in. We generally enjoyed the food very much, although we didn't find the specialty dinners any better than the regular meals (didn't help that it was drizzly and rough the night we ate at Candles outside). Good, reasonable mixed drinks (rum and cokes were only $5.25) and bartenders were happy to give you free iced tea.

 

Convenient that you can pick up snorkeling equipment Monday morning and keep it for the week. Also plenty of books and DVD's to borrow, though the DVD choices were not the best. Three different movies on your tv each day, though second rate too. Fun to have a loaded nano for our room. Pricey internet service on board ($22.50 for 1/2 hour).

 

Ports: Arrived in Barbados Friday evening and stayed at the Accra Hotel. Very convenient and room was fine (except for a view of a burned out hotel next door). We used Gregory (bigone1959@hotmail.com) for all our travel and tours in Barbados. Great for transportation (was there at the airport even though we were 2 hours late), good for tours - just be sure to agree on all prices up front. Couldn't find a good professional tour package that worked for us so we found it most convenient to use one driver for everything. Joined up with another couple from cruise critic to make travel/tours more reasonable (he charged $35 per hour for tours).

 

Recommend going to Oistin's Fish Fry for dinner Friday night (short cab ride from hotel) which was fun and delicious - check out the crafts in the back too. Saturday we took a government bus (the big blue ones) up to Holetown since there was a festival there. Interesting way to see the island, but was a long ride and had to stand the whole time. Ate lunch at Just Grillin' in Holetown - good and reasonable (there's one across from the Accra too). Saturday night we enjoyed Flying Fish Restaurant in nearby St. Lawrence Gap (delicious fish and good value) and walked around that area afterwards. Should make reservations - at least for Saturday night.

 

Sunday we spent over 6 hours with Gregory touring Barbados before boarding the cruise - we chose to go to the Wildlife Reserve, St. Nicholas Abbey and the east coast. Great lunch at Sand Dunes on the east coast. Wildlife Reserve is looking a bit shabby, but was fun, and be sure to walk up to the Signal Hill from there for beautiful views and interesting little museum. Enjoyed St. Nicholas Abbey and be sure to get a tour (included) and walk the gardens (the gardener Winston gave us a nice little tour too). At end of tour, Gregory dropped us at the Wind Surf with our luggage. Would recommend doing a Sunday driving tour as there was no traffic, unlike when we took the bus on Saturday.

 

Monday - Bequia - Turn left off the boat to find the open-air taxi drivers that will give you a tour for about $30 per hour. Pricey for just 2 of us, so we walked a little further to the tourist office, met another couple from the boat and had the tour office get us a recommended driver. For $100, Julian Ollivierre did an excellent 3 hour tour for the 4 of us, then dropped us at Lower Bay (beautiful beach, not great snorkeling, a few restaurants) and picked us up a few hours later (pay at end of day). Can email Noel Ollivierre if want to set up a tour in advance at same price (oliver1@vincysurf.com). Be sure to have your driver stop at Brother King's Old Hegg turtle sanctuary ($5 contribution) and one of the model ship shops (we went to Sargeant Brothers - beautiful ships - contribution requested there too). Walked along the Belmont Walkway in Pt. Elizabeth before returning to ship. If don't want a tour, water taxi's to either Princess Margaret Beach or Lower Bay were only $3 from port.

 

Tues. - Dominica - Did the Roseau Valley Treasures ("wet tour") with bumpiingtours.com. Fun tour for $40 pp plus $7 pp for snorkeling at Champagne reef. Levi Baron was doing the later tour for Carnival people, so he set us up with Alvin Noel and Kelvin Noel for our tours who were very good. Loved Titou Gorge, Trafalgar Falls and esp. lounging in the Sulphur Springs. Glad we added Champagne Reef - I recommend having one of the snorkel guides that approach you accompany you (you pay the guide whatever you wish so bring some change with you to the beach - we gave him $5). The guide pointed out so much that we would never have noticed (like an octopus!).

 

Dominica was one of the few ports we went back to the boat for lunch, since on many of the ports on this cruise you have to take a tender to shore. We didn't want to spend that much time getting back to the boat for lunch on those days so we brought snacks and sandwiches from breakfast to hold us over until dinner. We were lucky enough to be in Dominica for "street jump-up" (carnival) so spent the rest of the day walking around Roseau (check out the delicious flavored rum shots in the bars). We found people very warm and nice here. Print out walking tour from http://www.avirtualdominica.com/walkingtours for a one page guide and map.

 

Wed. - Pigeon Island, St. Lucia. We enjoyed just staying on Pigeon Island (we had seen St. Lucia before). Hiked up to Fort Rodney (short walk, paved, just a little steep) and then the signal station (steeper and rockier hike but worth it) and checked out the small interpretive center (broken down exhibits but worth walking through if you like history). Relaxed and snorkeled on the small beach (not the prettiest, but fine), though it was rainy so our beach bbq was cancelled.

 

Thurs. - Saline Bay, Mayreau. Here we did the cruise's catamaran ride and snorkeled. Snorkeling was good, not great (water is gorgeous though). Really enjoyed the stop to swim with the huge turtles. Then walked up to the small town (steep, 20-30 minute walk) with great views of Tobago Cays from behind the church. People who continued the walk down to the other side of the island said that beach was incredible there (can get a water taxi back if don't want to do the walk again). Sun was hot! (will wear a shirt next time for snorkeling to avoid getting burnt).

 

Fri. - Grenada. Did the Spice Tour with Mandoo Tours (mandoo@grenadatours.com) ($45 pp). Excellent, professional tour (though a bit "practiced") and beautiful island. Then wandered around St. George and walked up to the old fort in town - beautiful views.

 

Sat. - Charlotteville, Tobago. Did a tour with Wayne Gray (waynesworld-tours.com) for $50 pp (even if only 2 people, though we had another couple join us from the boat). GREAT tour - very knowledgable and we enjoyed bird (and insect) watching in the rainforest, swimming in Argyle Falls and tour of the north part of the island. He even stopped at a stand and bought us sugar cane and bananas to snack on. We were sorry we didn't have time for snorkeling as some on our cruise said the snorkeling was better on the north end of the island than any of the other ports. (bring water shoes or waterproof sandals if you want to swim in the falls - had to climb over rocks to get there). Since there is nothing to see in Charlotteville (somewhat run down fishing village), we recommend a tour of this beautiful island. Unlike others, we liked that the port is in the north non-touristy, quiet part of the island (the large cruise boats go to the south end of the island where there is more activity). Mytobago.info has lots of information on Tobago.

 

Sun. - Back to Barbados. Plenty of cabs at the port, but we used Gregory and had him take us to the Boatyard ($15 pp includes drink) in nearby Bridgetown for a few hours (beautiful calm beach and good flying fish sandwiches) and then take us to the airport. The Boatyard held our luggage (though not really set up to do it), so that worked out well (though could have left our luggage with our driver).

 

Overall, great trip. Loved Wind Surf for a different experience than the big boats. Also liked the smaller, different ports.

 

Linda

[sail7seas]

Nice review. I came here specifically looking to read a review such as yours.

Thank you.