Monthly Archives: February 2026

Guadeloupe….a very dangerous place!

Posted on February 19, 2026 by julieallen36

Our final day would be spent in Guadeloupe, somewhere that I don’t think we even touched on during my studies. Our tour guide today was Gianni who was my favourite tour guide on the trip. He was extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his island and it made this an excellent field trip! It wasn’t surprising that this island isn’t on many peoples radar, as it was until about 20 years ago that tourism started to develop here. And…there is one big reason for this. 20 years ago the BBC and the Development Department of Guadeloupe agreed that filming for a new TV series could take place here. That programme is ‘Death in Paradise’, now in its 18th season!

Death in Paradise is why we were here today and we haven’t even really ever watched it! However, our lovely friends ‘The Party People’ (you know who you are! ) LOVE it and watch it all together as families and love to sing along to the theme tune and wave their arms about. Der Der Der Der Der, Der Der Der, Der Der Der….

So, we were off with Gianni and 6 coach loads of would-be-detectives to visit the very dangerous places on this island!

We drove through the island which is shaped like a butterfly. Our port was Point A Pitre on Grande-Terre the coral part of the islands where most of the resorts are located on the perfect white beaches. We drove over to Basse-Terre the more mountainous and volcanic part of the islands. It was immediately obvious how different this Guadeloupe is. Gianni explained that Guadeloupe is still a Department of France ie it is France and their currency is the Euro! Driving through, it looked like France. Neat and tidy, French road signs, Renault dealerships, modern buildings, Lycra clad cyclists and we even drove speedily along a motorway. What a contrast to the road in Tortola!

Gianni took pride in telling us that the islanders were still very close to nature and that no one need ever starve because there was so much food to eat just at the side of the road. Papaya, coconuts, bananas, mango, avocado, breadfruit. He seemed particularly keen on eating the roadside chickens which he said were way tastier than those in the supermarkets! Lots of French people retire here because of the healthy lifestyle and the islands has the highest number of people over 100 in the whole of France. The people here benefit from French social security support if needed and he described the people as ‘comfortable’.

The other big difference here is that Guadeloupe has never become dependent on tourism. There’s some series agriculture here and they’ve focused on Agricultural transformation. For example instead of abandoning their sugar cane industry they’ve worked out how its waste products can be used to produce electricity , bottles and tissue. There were very few of the shacks that we seen people living in elsewhere…these were modern homesteads made to withstand the hurricanes that are regular visitors.

Anyway, enough of the geography lesson…let’s talk murders! There have been more murders on the fictional island of St Marie than on Shetland and now we were about to visit all the famous TV locations. First stop the beach where ‘The Shack’ is located during filming. But much to everyone’s disappointment the shack gets packed away at the end of filming to protect it from hurricanes! Gianni also confirmed that the little lizard 🦎 Harry is not real- he’s AI. Shocking!

The beach, however, was lovely. Beautiful golden sand back by palms, sea grapes and almond trees. We saw the hotel where many, many murders have taken place before driving into the village of Deshaies (real name). This is where much of filming takes place including scenes of the police station which we were hilariously allowed to tour round and have photos sitting at the police desks and in the cells! We visited the church and then made a beeline for Catherine’s Bar. This is the shack-like bar from the TV series that overlooks the beautiful bay. It was very popular but we had a couple of beers and enjoyed the view and a little sketch. The emerald colours of the water here are stunning.

Luckily, nobody got murdered on this trip and we made it back to the ship in time for us to have our Musical Afternoon Tea in Gallery 47. Just when you didn’t think you needed anything else to eat..you find you’ve booked a special Afternoon Tea! Help!!! I need to get off this ship!

We had a quiet evening doing our packing ready for them to collect our suitcases which we will next see in Brum. We watched the early evening show ‘ABBA- The Life Story’, then caught The Collective in the atrium followed by the ships crew saying farewell to us all. This was our chance to say thanks to the wonderful 700+ crew. With a tear in our eye we went to bed for the last night on board.

What a fantastic trip it has been. We have both absolutely loved it and I don’t think it’ll be long before we’re looking at where our next cruise might take us…..

Jane interviews Gianni about Harry the AI Lizard

In the cell for crimes at the Silent Disco

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Caribbean, Cruise, Guadeloupe | Leave a comment

Antigua, a big tick and a bit of a surprise

Posted on February 19, 2026 by julieallen36

Islands are coming thick and fast now….this morning we woke up in Antigua. Jane joined me for the sunrise on Deck 10, on what would turn out to be our cloudiest day yet. We docked next to 3 other absolutely huge cruise ships including the Celebrity ‘Ascent’ which appeared to have a restaurant on an exterior lift mechanism that took it up and down the outside of the ship. The Norwegian ‘Epic’ on the other hand had the water slides on the top deck!

I’ve always wanted to visit Antigua and it was on my very original Top 10 wish list that we created when Jane and I first me, over 25 years ago. I think the desire to visit had come from when I studied Geography at Uni over the 30 years ago. Leera and I had done a term of study called ‘The Caribbean’ and the guy who taught us really just showed us his holiday slides. When it came to exam time he realised that he hadn’t actually taught us anything so basically gave us the questions in advance so that we wouldn’t fail. The pictures that had stuck in my mind were those of the famous English Harbour.

So today’s trip would take us to see the ‘Heights and Sights’ of Antigua. Our guide described it as a ‘Liquid Sunshine’ day as we set of on our little tour bus around the island in the rain. Eek …this isn’t what we’d planned. As we drove our guide pointed out the old sugar mills, the old cotton industry and how people used to farm for themselves but no longer bothered. Tourism, that was the big thing now. It probably had been ever since the 80s when we studied it.

We were also shown the hospital built by the Chinese, the Viv Richards Cricket Stadium, a gift from the Chinese and the biggest supermarket on the island XPZ , owned by the Chinese. Interesting. Our guide didn’t really comment on this but I got the feeling he wasn’t too happy about it.

As we left the urban area of St John’s we began to drive through rural villages. It was colourful and a bit of a visual overload with the candy pink church, the sky blue laundry, the lime green barbers and the red Lee Fung restaurant. There was even a cute purple police station. But it wasn’t exactly pretty. It was chaotic, messy, ramshackle and in need of a jolly good tidy up. There was corrugated iron everywhere, wrecked cars just left to decay in the lush vegetation and houses made out of old shipping containers. Hm…..more of this later but for now we’d arrived at the viewpoints for English Harbour up at Shirley Heights.

We made two stops and luckily the cloud had partially cleared and the views were absolutely stunning. The view is down to the numerous coves, harbours and sandy beaches. There are loads of big sailing boats moored and today several ocean going yachts out racing on the water. There were little plaques around telling us about the history but we didn’t really take it in as we were so busy taking our photos. We didn’t have time to visit the little souvenir stands either.

This contrast between the wealth and poverty of the island made me very thoughtful and it came even more into perspective as we tried to drive through a tiny village called ‘Suid’ but pronounced ‘Sweet’, I think. Here we got badly held up by the ‘Total Gridlock’ caused by a funeral. Cars were parked up everywhere along the narrow street and all of the people had come out dressed in their finest. The tour buses could hardly get through and as we were stopped some young guys walked past being very rude about us folk on the bus. They were spitting feathers and clearly not in the camp of ‘tourism’ is good for the island….hm. This got me thinking again. Why are the islands that we have visited sooo different in terms of their development? In particular, WHY, if Antigua has had tourism as its main industry for 30+ years with the super yachts and luxury hotels, hasn’t that helped lift the local population out of poverty? Discuss. As our old exam question would have asked.

Meanwhile, back on the island our next stop would be one of the 365 idyllic Antiguan beaches. Hurrah. We drove past some absolutely gorgeous empty white sand beaches but sadly got taken to one which was over-crowded with US cruise ship passengers being very loud. Jane and I grabbed a beer from the noisy, colourful bar and escaped the madness a little way up the beach. I had a quick dip and it was lovely but Jane and I agreed that Antigua wasn’t top of our list to revisit. This made me feel slightly guilty as surely what they need is for us to visit and spend some real time and money locally on the island rather than what we’d done today.

Back on board ship, there was a lot of honking of ships ‘whistles’ and cheering as the passengers on Epic returned late from their catamaran trip. This would never happen on our little ship. The logistics, organisation and service have been impeccable. The staff are so friendly and our 3 cabin crew, Riba, Kevin and Jay have looked after us brilliantly freshening up our room twice a day and creating our lovely towel art animals for us! Every trip we have done has been great, good value for money and v well organised.

In the evening we were going to go to the BBQ on the pool deck but it had an absolute downpour and so this had all been packed away. We couldn’t get into the Italian and so we settled for a lovely meal in 47 Degrees and an early night. Tomorrow would be our last day….and what a contrast we’d see in unknown Guadeloupe.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Antigua, Caribbean, Cruise | Leave a comment

Bobbing Along in St Maarten

Posted on February 19, 2026 by julieallen36

I don’t know what’s wrong with me but again today I was up and ready to see the sunrise at 6-20! It wasn’t quite as beautiful as the previous day as the ship sailed into St Maarten, the Dutch side of this tiny island state. Once again the ship sailed right into the heart of the capital, Philipsburg. It’s a big port and there were two other cruise ships in dock when we arrived. There seemed to be a lot of modern development and to our left a huge turquoise bay of water called Great Bay. There was no historic town like we’d seen elsewhere but there were plenty of super yachts bobbing about in the bay.

As our trip today was once again in the afternoon, we sat in our new favourite place on The Venranda! It was very noisy with the sound of trucks, buses, drills, motorbikes, loud music, ships horns, construction, airplanes, trolley car bells etc. There was absolutely nothing natural about this place even the white sand seemed to be being imported.

In the afternoon we were booked on our 2nd catamaran trip. The Golden Eagle. This was a slightly smaller vessel than the one in St Lucia and the crew all seemed somewhat surly and unsmiley.

The first stop after about 10 mins of skimming across the turquoise waters was the snorkel spot. I chose to get into the water at the back of the boat. I didn’t want to slide and hurt myself so there is now a video of me sitting down and then face planting into the water with a huge ‘smack’ ! Ouch it hurt but I braved it out.

The snorkelling was v average as they were feeding the fish to attract them. There was a sunken submarine and apparently a helicopter which I didn’t seen. Everyone seemed very impressed that I’d seen the shopping trolley, however.

Next we sailed past lots of modern development and houses of the rich and famous, before we sailed into a picture perfect bay where we would be able to spend 40mins on the beach. The only problem was you had to swim to the beach. Hm…..in the adverts for this trip they’d shown the boat actually landing on the beach. Fair play to Jane, she stood up and asked how she was supposed to get there as, of course, she’s currently not swimming still. The crew were great and when Jane confirmed that yes , she did want to go ashore, they made it happen via the rib and a rubber ring on a rope. Don’t get me wrong this wasn’t a thrill ride but a slow careful chug with Jane smiling away behind. They were brilliant and got her ashore with no effort and no stress. I meanwhile swam ashore, it was absolutely beautiful.

This made us very happy and the beach itself was soft, soft white sand and sea of turquoise blue. This was Simpsons Beach. Not too crowded, just perfect.

Once we’d safely returned to the boat we sailed along until we reached the famous beach where the planes land right overhead at the airport. It was very exciting as the planes were coming in every few minutes and flew right above our heads as we cheered from the boat.

As we started our journey back , it once again began to rain. We took shelter inside whilst a few mad Rum Drinkers carried on the party outside in the rain. On previous boat trips our favourite song had become ‘Big Bamboo’ a very questionable song from 2014! By now the crew had all cheered up and joined in the fun with everyone as we sang along to YMCA and of course, Sweet Caroline, at the tops of our voices.

In the evening we went back to Islands for their Caribbean themed night, the food was excellent once again. Afterwards we scored 20/20 in the 70s quiz night but lost out on the tie break again. The question was how many copies did Mull of Kintyre sell back in the 70s?

After this we decided to go to the Live Lounge again to check out The Collective’s Country Night. We were a bit early and when we arrived the screen said we were listening to a pianist called Andrei. Indeed we were listening to music but there was no one on stage. Very odd business. We decided that perhaps Andrei was tiny little pocket sized pianist that we just couldn’t see.

The Collective were again very good singing a range of country tunes and there were a handful of people up line dancing. At 9:45 we retired to bed, once again exhausted!

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Caribbean, Cruise, St Maarten | Leave a comment

Tortola by Land and Sea

Posted on February 18, 2026 by julieallen36

You know the format by now…….before our next adventure let’s check in with the night before. Remember , it was St Valentine’s Day so tonight we decided we’d go to the Italian at Gallery 47. We had a lovely meal but then decided to forego all the entertainment as we were exhausted after our day of socialising in St Kitts.

This was a good plan as it meant the next day we woke up raring to go. So much so that I decided to get up and check out the sunrise from Deck 10 at 6-45am. We were approaching Tortola and sailing through the British Virgin Islands which was pretty special.

Our trip today was in the afternoon which was unusual and meant we could have a much more relaxed start to the day. The main town where we docked here in Tortola is called Road Town. Our ship had a fantastic view into the colourful port and we found a new part of the ship ‘The Veranda’ which is adults only and we were able to sit whilst I sketched and Jane read her book. As we sat there we listened to the sound of the gospel singers celebrating Sunday. When we got off we found the gathering – the band, the local attendees and the tourists, all of whom were swaying and dancing and generally having a happy time. Splendid.

Around midday we met outside the ship ready for our trip….the name of which was the same as the title of this post. It did exactly what it said on the tin. We boarded a little boat and decided to sit up front as this was the best spot for photos. Our guide today was a Rasta with dreadlocks and had banter all day with the guy next to us who was celebrating his 60th birthday. As we sailed along past various islands, beaches and bays he told us about the history of each. This seemed to involve a lot of pirates, rum, salt and death. The tiny islands had names like Deadman’s Chest Island, Salt Island, Ginger Island, Peter Island and finally Norman Island which is famously the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’. It was all very pretty and undeveloped with just the odd luxury resort hidden away. There were, however, lots of sailing boats and catamarans moored up and plenty of money on show. Talking of expensive places to stay, Richard Branson’s Necker Island is part of the BVI just beyond Virgin Gorda (coincidence) and you can stay there for just US $80k per night!

There was no swimming today but there was a bar and the run punch was flowing nicely. As we were sailing back there was a sudden massive downpour and we all retreated undercover…well except the guy celebrating his birthday and a pirate Greybeard in his tropical shirt! our destination was the lovely harbour at Soper’s Hole which was really pretty and where we all went into the supermarket to buy crisps. All that talk had made us crave salt!

To get back from this trip you come by road. I’d assumed that this was just to get you back quicker but it seemed odd that we still had a couple of hours to go. That’s because we now boarded small open sided trucks which wound their way up and down the ridiculous inland roads of Tortola. To be fair, there had been a health warning about the roads when we signed up for it but nothing had prepared us for this. At times the truck could hardly make it, the suspension sounded awful, the gears made a loud grinding noise every time he changed up or down and we could only pray that the brakes had been checked recently! At one point our driver forgot to bip his horn at a blind bend and we met a van head on. He had to break on such a steep hill and try to change gears. The smell of clutch burning was toxic. Up and down and up again we went until we got to a viewpoint at Stouts Lookout where we all stopped and got out and had our photo opportunity. Some people also enjoyed the $2 fish cakes and a beer before we set off again.

What a relief to get back to the port at 4-30pm and back on board we enjoyed the sunset back up on deck 10. In the evening, we went Mexican at Islands and then stuck our noses in to see the stand up Comedian, Steve Terry and then a bit of reggae with Rhythm and Breeze in the Live lounge.

I hope you’re keeping up with us? Tomorrow is another day and another boat trip! ⛵️⚓️

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: BVI, Caribbean, Cruise, Tortola | 1 Comment

St Valentine’s Day in St Kitts

Posted on February 16, 2026 by julieallen36

We’d decided to do our own thing today as none of the tours particularly caught our eye. We woke up and once again we had sailed right into the heart of the town – Basse-Terre, the capital. As we weren’t in a rush this morning I was able to phone Mum from the top of the ship whilst overlooking the town and it was really good to hear Mum’s voice and know she was ok.

There was another huge great cruise ship in dock next to us and when we disembarked and walked out of the port terminal it was a chaotic scene. There were taxi drivers and tour guides touting for business everywhere. We thought we wanted to go to visit Fairview Plantation House, not to do a whole island tour but the guy we asked wanted $100 just to do this, which was a joke. We couldn’t be bothered with the hassle and decided to revert to our original plan which was to just walk around the town here. Cruise News had made it sound attractive and I had a list of the historic points of interest.

Out here amongst the old Georgian buildings it was very different, very chilled and relaxed on this sunny Saturday morning. We soon found The Circus with its ancient clock tower and then walked through to Independence Square. This place had a dark history as it was where originally slaves were bought and sold. However, it had been renamed and was now a lovely shady park celebrating the islands independence from Britain in 1983. There was a marquee set up and we were approached by a young lady who said they were promoting health by offering free tests for blood pressure, cholestrol etc and we agreed with her that, as we were on a cruise, now possibly wasn’t the best time to get tested! Interestingly she said she was a medical student from Puerto Rico but over here studying in St Kitts.

We wandered into the cool church and then down some backstreets. It was tidier than St Vincent’s and the people friendlier. As we wandered, the buildings got more and more run down and picturesque. There were lots of little stall holders outside selling stuff for Valentine’s Day…it was all very colourful.

We’d now wandered a bit more off the beaten track but still close to the waterfront. As we took our photos we were approached by a guy called Carl who introduced himself saying that St Kitts was where he was born but now he spent his time split between here and Canada. He was smartly dressed but slightly intimidating as he intensely questioned us about why we were photographing a particular little shack. He wanted to know EXACTLY why we’d chosen THAT building. The truth was it was pretty colours against the dark mountain background but he didn’t seem to want to accept this. It was only when I said I was an artist that he accepted it as he was a writer and he believed that we see the world differently. I also think he was trying to make a point about the fact that some tourists want to see the old architecture and not everything has to be gentrified and spruced up. Blimey, mate , you might be right but chill out!

Anyway he told us that we were standing on Westbourne Ghaut and that the water running down the middle of the road came all the way from the mountains and in fact was an open sewer. There was a colourful bridge over the bottom of the street as when the rains come the road gets flooded and is dangerous. Next, Carl took us to find the market, just around the corner and introduced us to his friend Ernestine (Tine). He wanted her to tell us about the history of the market. She was very friendly but really just wanted to serve her customer their bananas. The market wasn’t particularly busy..there were no other tourists in here and the friendly stall holders were happy for us to wander around taking photos. Carl said his farewells and off he went.

I decided to try and capture the stall holders in my sketchbook whilst Jane wandered off taking photos of the colourful murals. I’d only just started when my new best friend Sonja came over to chat to me. She was interested in what I was upto and was really nice to chat to. She too was a fellow creative and she showed me her amazing food creations on Facebook. She also wanted to interview me ‘for her country’ as she videoed me answering her questions about where I came from and how much I loved St Kitts, which by now I genuinely did! Again, part of me was wondering what she wanted but as far as I can tell…she just wanted a chat…and to get to 10,000 followers on Facebook so she can get paid for her posts.

Next I found myself chatting to two fisherman who were descaling their days catch down on the beach. It turns out everyone here knows Birmingham and they’ve all been to the Bullring!

By now it was very very hot and we made our way back to the port. We found Mrs Moore’s colourful ‘Eat to Live’ bar and I had 2 huge glasses of lemonade whilst I made Jane have beers so that I could Womble some more bottle tops! After refreshments we got back on the ship for the afternoon. Jane went up on the pool deck to watch England lose the rugby and I had a cool sleep in our room!

I loved St Kitt’s and we’ve barely scratched the surface of it as it also has loads of fab beaches, historic sites and plantation houses and the whole of the island of Nevis to explore. Frigate Bay is one of the beach strips with bars with irresistible names like The Monkey Bar, Zanzi Bar, Boozies on the Beach and my favourite Mr Shiggidy Shack’.

Yes, I could definitely come back here.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Caribbean, Cruise, St Kitts | Leave a comment

Another Day Adrift

Posted on February 16, 2026 by julieallen36

The next day was another day at sea. These are all starting to blur somewhat now but I think we spent it having a full sunbathing day at the back of the boat next to the mini golf. We choose this spot because it’s away from the clamour of the main pool and also out of the breeze. However, it was a very hot day and later on we’d be desperate for a bit of breeze! I also used the indoor pool several times in my attempt to cool down. I appreciate that this is perhaps not something you want to hear me moan about back home!

Instead today’s ’Day at Sea’ Topic is food. Apart from the OPs the other worry for a lot of people is whether they’re likely to starve on a cruise. Haha. Of course it’s not…the real worry is that you’ll put on so much weight that you won’t be able to get back in your plane seat later. I now understand how this can happen.

Jane and I got on the ship with very good intentions. We’d be moderate in everything we’d eat. Have a tiny breakfast and go without lunch as we tend to do if we go to an All Inclusive resort. Then we’d be able to enjoy a moderate, healthy meal in the evening. Oh yes …that’s what we intended…..but this is what happens in reality. The first day you do this, you stick to the plan. But by Day 2 you’ve decided that after your Bran Flakes it wouldn’t be so bad to have a fried egg and a bit of bacon. And by lunch time you’re a little bit peckish so you agree to poke your noses into Islands to see what’s on offer. Salad, Salad that’s what I’ll have. But all of a sudden, alongside your salad, a few roast potatoes have leapt onto your plate alongside some Cajun chicken nuggets. Oh dear…The next day those pesky roast potatoes have found their way onto your now Full English Breakfast plate. And how come it’s even legal these days to offer Fried Bread!

By the 2nd week you’re first in the queue for lunch on the boat trip lunch and find it necessary to visit, not just the sit down restaurant for dinner but afterwards, you find yourselves in Islands as by 10pm you need a little snack.

Ok…so I maybe exaggerating a little but you certainly will not starve on a cruise! The restaurant choice is fantastic and the quality of food throughout has been top notch. We haven’t even been to the Italian or Piccadilly’s yet which is a modern British Brasserie offering.

And I’m not even going to talk about the drink options. It is all inclusive so it’s v easy to get carried away. You can choose to upgrade to Premium which means you get fancy brand spirits, better choice of wine and fancy coffees from the Coffee Spot near our cabin. We haven’t bothered with all that but we have had a jolly nice time! Even though people are having a lot to drink I have to say nobody I’ve seen has behaved obnoxiously or loudly. Well except maybe in the Silent Disco!

Talking of which, after our very hot day in the sun we had a full nights entertainment planned. We went to the Indian themed night at Islands Buffet then after the Quiz ‘Tv Theme tunes’ 16/20 scored, we popped in to see the show which tonight was called ‘Ballroom Blitz’ and featured dances from all around the globe. To be honest we’re getting a bit bored of the 2 professional dancers as all the boy seems to do is throw the girl around in the air 143 different ways. Afterwards we made a good discovery in the Live Lounge where there was a band playing called The Collective. They were really good and played a variety of hits from the 50s, 60s and 70s. The place was very busy and we were all singing along and having a little dance. This was merely the warm up act for the main event The Silent Disco. Exactly the same format as before …red and blue teams battling it out. Sadly tonight didn’t have quite the same vibe. As it’s half term there are quite a few kids on board and some of the older ones were enjoying the Silent Disco which maybe made the adults a bit more reserved. However, it was mainly because we were missing our friends Jyoti and Shami who had made it such a fun night the first time around. Still, we gave it our best shot and my hip is telling me that I probably shouldn’t do that again this holiday!

That’s our last day at sea now. They’re not my favourite, I’d much rather be out and about exploring and tomorrow we’ll be doing that on our own in St Kitts!

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Caribbean, Cruise | 1 Comment

Return to Barbados

Posted on February 14, 2026 by julieallen36

Thursday saw our return to Bridgetown, Barbados where a lot of passengers disembarked either for a stay on the island or their return flights home.

We had a leisurely wake up and breakfast in Islands as our booked tour for the day had been cancelled. We knew about this early in the cruise. We were supposed to visit a small zoo followed by a trip to Worthing Beach but apparently ‘operational difficulties’ meant this couldn’t now happen. We’d looked at other options but decided to have an independent adventure. Jane had got some advice from a friend of a friend, who comes to Barbados a lot, as to the best thing to do with just one day to spend in Barbados.

So we were off to Pier 1 Restaurant at Port St Charles. The port here in Bridgetown is large and very well organised. Once through the terminal there are people who co-ordinate the taxis so we got on board with a couple off the ‘Jewel of the Seas’ who were from Canada and a couple from London off our ship. The lovely Brenda was our taxi driver and she patiently drove us all all the way up the west coast of the island to our various stops. We drove through interesting looking towns like Speightstown and Holetown and past the famous Sandy Lane Golf Club. Everywhere was bright and colourful despite the fact that the day was a little over-cast. Along the road were a mix of luxury resorts, very fancy condominium blocks alongside tiny ramshackle shacks. It was a very odd mix and you wonder how these tiny home owners manage to keep hold of them when there’s so much development all around. On the left hand side we got occasional glances of the beautiful beaches and sea.

After about an hour we arrived at our destination. The selling point of this place is that with your lunch reservation comes the opportunity to spend the day on their sunbeds,using their pool and swimming in the sea. Unfortunately when we arrived (3 hours before our lunch reservation) the young lady said that there were currently no sunbeds frees but we were welcome to sit in the bar. Erm…..not really what we had in mind. Instead we walked back across the bridge to a lovely little beach opposite the restaurant which had only one family on it. We lay out our towels and settled down to relax. When the sun came out the views to the restaurant were beautiful with the soft white sand, the palm trees swaying and the water which seemed to be a rainbow of colours as it swirled in the breeze. I obviously couldn’t still and after a lovely swim to cool down I had a little wander along the beach seeing what ‘treasure’ I could find. I then laid it all out on my towel and painted it into my sketchbook. Jane meanwhile didn’t read her book as she was supposed to as there was free Wifi so she did a little bit of catching up.

When it was time for lunch we wandered back to the restaurant. Jane had a lobster and prawn dish and I had a Flying Fish Sandwich which was very tasty. We had views over the water back to our little beach as well as the various yachts that kept coming and going.

After lunch we were able to stay on the deck on a couple of sunbeds and spent the afternoon in the partial sunshine and I enjoyed a couple more swims in the pool and sea. Lovely. At 4-30pm Brenda was waiting for us as promised and again carefully drove us back to the port. She’d been absolutely brilliant as everyone had told us the taxi drivers here are.

We got back to the ship at 5-30 well in time for our departure at 8pm. We were now joined by lots of pasty looking new people looking excited but a little dazed and confused! We were both a little tired after our big day out so it was a quiet and early night for us…zzzzzzzzzzzz

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Barbados, Caribbean, Cruise | Leave a comment

An Unexpected Port of Call…..St Vincent

Posted on February 13, 2026 by julieallen36

As we know, due to bad weather we hadn’t been able to call at Curacao so instead we’d sailed overnight to Kingstown, the capital of St Vincent and the Grenadines. This is famously where they’d filmed Pirates of the Caribbean but we’d decided to opt for the more generalist ‘Panoramic St Vincent’ tour rather than play pirates for the day!

As we woke up and went up to breakfast at Islands the views were fantastic. We had sailed right into the heart of this pretty town with its steep hillsides, lush mountain backdrops and busy harbour front. It was by far the best view from the ship we’d had so far, although to be fair my memories are already starting to blur! As we ate breakfast we watched the comings and goings at the port with ferries from the other islands arriving with their loads of school children presumably on their morning commute! It was very colourful and exciting and I managed to do a little sketch from the top deck.

We joined up with Shami and Jo for our tour today which was in a small bus with a friendly guide called Ruby. She was lovely but it was sometimes difficult to keep up with her both physically and verbally as she had a heavy creole (?) accent! St Vincent is very small (18 miles long and 11 miles wide) and we started by driving through Kingstown. This is a rather scruffy place but full of interesting people. Ruby gave us a good tour of the various municipal buildings which she was clearly very proud of.

Our first stop was the Botanical Gardens which are apparently the oldest in the western hemisphere, created in 1765. We had a lovely stroll around here admiring the lovely flowers and trees and then had the obligatory photo with the sign ‘St Vincent and the Grenadines’. This is also where we were able to see the National Bird of St Vincent, the imaginatively named ‘St Vincent Parrot’. They were very pretty but sadly behind bars.

After this we drove up very steep, dodgy roads into the mountains. The driver managed to avoid most pot holes and the racing minibuses with graffiti all over the front of them. We loved the signs that said ‘Stop the Reckless Driving’ with a picture of a smashed up car on it. The views were terrific and we kept going until we got to our next stop at a point where we could see both the Atlantic sea (Windward side) and the Caribbean Sea (Leeward side). It was indeed very windy up here but the views over the mountains and farming villages were great. Life in St Vincent doesn’t sound easy. Not only do they experience hurricanes, the last one in 2024 was category 5 and flattened the Grenadines and caused much damage in the north of St Vincent. But they also have an active volcano, La Soufriere, which last erupted in 2021 and I think Ruby said it threw black dust all over everywhere. Blimey. Anyway, stuff and nonsense, my guidebook says there are some wonderful hikes to be had here and the views from the crater rim are breathtaking. Not today Thankyou….

At our own viewpoint we were treated to a drop of rum punch. Made from the islands own rum which is 84% proof! It was all really quite undeveloped but every now and then Ruby would show us a ‘castle’ on top of a hill. These were huge ostentatious houses built by local businessmen and Ruby had a funny story to go with each of them.

St Vincent and the Grenadines became independent from Britain in 1979 but is still proudly part of the Commonwealth. There were lots of signs of the current politics of the island as they paint their offices particular colours according to g to their party! In general building development here is covered by the building code which tells people the rules for building their houses BUT they can individualise them by painting them whatever colour they want. Hence the colourful mix!

Once we returned down to the coast we went through an area where the main tourist development is located. It’s called Villa. It’s much more low key than Aruba but there are several resorts and a smart looking Blue Lagoon yacht club. From here we could see two of the Grenadine Islands…Mustique and Bequia. Ruby told us that you could swim with ‘Toddles’ over here…..any ideas! 🐢

Now we’d done a full circle and returned to Kingstown. Ruby said we were now her family and if we returned to St Vincent she’d sort us somewhere to stay. Bless.

After a spot of onboard lunch we went out with the girls into Kingstown by foot. This wasn’t quite as good as we’d hoped. The people weren’t at all friendly, they didn’t bother us ..they just weren’t interested. Fair enough…we wandered around through the famous arches pavements trying to keep cool but it was sweltering and we were all suffering. We went as far as St Mary’s cathedral but that was enough and we agreed to make our way back to the port. There really wasn’t anything in the town for tourists at all….no nice looking bars or anything. Back at the port however we did find a friendly bar for a refreshing beer. Meanwhile the pirates were back and they’d clearly been on the rum all day as they were now dancing with the steel reggae band and singing along to UB40 Classics!

Back on board this was the girls last night. We’d be returning to Barbados tomorrow and the girls would then fly home. We, on the other hand, start part two of our itinerary ‘Cocktails and Coconuts’! We chose to go back to The Glasshouse to eat and then a cheeky farewell drink up at Bar Eleven before the show which tonight was ‘Musicals’ which was very very good. Then it was time to say goodbye to the girls. They’ve been absolutely great company as we really hit it off. We’re looking forward to seeing them again back in Brum but we will miss them over the next few days.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Caribbean, Cruise, St Vincent | Leave a comment

A Breezy Day at Sea

Posted on February 13, 2026 by julieallen36

In the pre- holiday PowerPoint presentation I had prepared about our trip, the Day at Sea pages had received some criticism from our friends for lacking detail. I’m going to put that right here by describing what we got upto on our 2nd day at sea.

But first, what activity did we get upto the night before, I hear you ask? Well, after our lovely day in Aruba we had a relaxed evening and met up with Shami and Jo for dinner . This time we ventured further afield to The Glasshouse Restaurant. The Glasshouse is where the lovely cool, indoor pool is that I’ve been using when I get too hot sunbathing. However, at night the tables round the edge are transformed into a small restaurant with waitress service. Tonight we enjoyed tapas and a crème Catalan to finish. The show tonight was called ‘Cogs’ which meant absolutely nothing so we decided to give it a miss. We spent most of the night chatting over dinner and then back in the Atrium Bar.

The next day was our 2nd day at sea. However, today it was very different. Overnight there had been quite a bit of movement of the ship as the Captain had warned. It’s absolutely fine and kind of gently rocks you to sleep but in the morning it was rather overcast and very breezy. We had a leisurely breakfast in 47 Degrees including their daily special French Toast. Yum.

We’d woken up too late to play the bag a sunbed game and the decks were already heaving partly because some parts of the upper deck were closed off as the wind made them too dangerous! Instead, Jane and I decided to go and see the 10am showing of the new Downton Abbey film in the Broadway Show Lounge. This seemed a very chilled way to spend the morning. Unfortunately, however, once the film started it had massive writing all over the big screen describing ever pay single noise and also had subtitles. This is never Jane’s favourite thing but even I didn’t think it was worth trying to watch this as the big words were right in the middle of the screen making it impossible to see the action! We quickly left the arena…

Hm…..what to do now on a breezy day at sea? We decided to further consult Cruise News. There are actually loads of different activities put on by the crew for everyone to enjoy if they want. Yes, Geoff, we could even go to the gym! However, this morning instead of that we decided to go for a walk, 10000 steps around the windy decks! Most people choose to do this early in the morning when the sun beds and sunbathing beauties aren’t out. However, we decided to do the Obstacle Course instead speedily walking between the beds on deck 10, round the back of the ship and the mini golf and rock climbing wall, down the steps to deck 9 round the pool, through the sale of signed sporting memorabilia and dodging the beer spills before doing it all again! Several times. Jane was like a racing snake and I could barely keep up with her.

So steps done what else could we do? Well here is a selection of what was on offer today. How about one of the informative talks at the spa? Choose from ‘Puffy Eye Seminar’, ‘How to increase your Metabolism’ or ‘ Anti-Aging Solutions’. I think it’s fair to say that they know their audience! If the talks aren’t for you how about attending a charcoal drawing class or perhaps a trivia quiz to exercise your brain? Maybe you’d like to learn to line dance or play a board game? If you’re the sporty type there is plenty on offer. A game of Killer Darts or maybe Mini Curling?

Two of our favourite activities are not listed in Cruise News. Firstly, we really enjoy getting lost around the ship. We never know which floor anything is on, which end of the ship things are at and whether we should turn left or right on coming out of lifts. It seems that most passengers also enjoy this new hobby. Secondly, we love phaffing about trying to get WiFi or mobile phone access. I have purchased the extortionate onboard WiFi and Jane bought an e- Sim which doesn’t seem to have worked properly since day 2. It makes keeping in touch a little bit tricky. The best option seems to be when we leave the ship where everyone tries to log into the free port Wifi. Alternatively, access down at the beach bars seems to be pretty good.

Anyway, today we decided that after a rest and a spot of lunch and a bit of blogging that we’d have a game of mini golf with Jo and Shami. Excellent fun in the wind at the back of the ship. Can’t believe we lost!! By now all of the decks had re-opened and we had a little sunbathe before the sun went down.

In the evening Jane and I had booked into one of the ‘special’ paying restaurants, The Kora Lai Indian Restaurant up on Deck 11. We went up in the glass lift all the way and it was like we were going to take off! We arrived in this really sophisticated looking bar area, Bar Eleven. It really was impressive and we had an excellent Indian/Asian meal before meeting up with Shami and Jo for this evening show ‘The Movies’. None of us were really feeling it this evening as evidenced by the fact that Jane fell asleep by the end! we needed the rest ready for the next days visit to St Vincent.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Caribbean, Cruise | Leave a comment

Aruba- Let me show you something…..

Posted on February 10, 2026 by julieallen36

But first, an evening catch up! We are becoming creatures of habit and met up with Jo and Shami for dinner at 47 Degrees. They’re sisters from Brum and absolutely excellent company. It’s been really lovely getting to know them and we’re already planning on meeting up with them when we return home!

After dinner we all agreed that tonight we’d go to the show..this time called ‘Kneworth Rock’s. Basically, this was a run through the history of the Knebworth Music festival with the crew cast singing and dancing along to everything from Queen, Led Zeppelin, Robbie Williams and Oasis. It was jolly professional and great fun.

Early the next morning we woke up to find ourselves arriving in Oranjestad, the capital of Aruba, as the sun was still rising. We had breakfast and then got ourselves ready for today’s ‘Panoramic Aruba’ tour. This was a coach trip all of the small island of Aruba with our happy and informative driver, Benjamin. He talked as he drove and introduced the various sights by saying hesitantly ‘Now …..let me show you something…’. It made it seem very personal and like he’d never shown anyone these things before. Bless him.

Aruba was a very surprising island. Gone were the tropical mountains of St Lucia and Grenada….now we were in the Desert Island! Much more like how I imagine the Canary Islands …with scrubby vegetation, bare scorched soil and loads and loads of Cactus. This is because Aruba gets very little rain…maybe 15-20 inches a year and some years it doesn’t get any. BUT they have a water desalination plant so no worries.

We drove through the colourful villages with some Dutch old style houses and then along rough tracks with romantic names like Frenchman’s Pass and past the Spanish Lagoon. Our first stop was at The Natural Bridge along with many other coaches, open sided buses, 4 wheel drive buggies and even the odd cyclist! The Natural Bridge was a rock bridge eroded by the sea but unfortunately after millions of years in the making, in 2005 the bridge collapsed suddenly. Now we had to enjoy the view of the Baby Bridge instead! Benjamin had explained about some of the rocks we were seeing and the fact that a lot of the island is formed of coral. There was mention of Gabbro and Basalt …it was all very geography field trip ie very exciting!

Our next stop (and my favourite) was at the giant rock boulders. These are granite and there is a sort of garden area where you walk around and can then climb the various outcrops using the stone steps. They’re not as big as Dartmoor’s Tors but the views from the top of the biggest one were impressive and they’re a rather wonderful bouldery shape.

Next stop on our whistle stop tour of the 74km square island, was the California Lighthouse. This again has terrific views but from here you can see the beautiful white sand Arashi Beach and the incredibly turquoise/milky blue sea. We couldn’t quite make out Venezuela today but as it’s only 15 miles further south…it is sometimes possible. The highlight here, however, was the old bus selling amazing smoothies and we had the recommended coconut smoothie which was delicious.

As well as showing us the sights, Benjamin also taught us a little of the island’s history including the original Arawak settlers, the Dutch, the Spanish, the British colonialists. Colonialists who wanted to exploit the islands gold, its aloes and even its Arawak population. The island is no longer part of the group of islands called the Dutch Antilles but it is now largely autonomous with still with close links to the Netherlands.

On our way back to the ship we drove past the resort area of the island. This was SO different to the real Aruba. These big name hotels line the white sandy beaches and it became clear why tourism is now the biggest economy of the island.

After a little break and lunch (oh dear) onboard we met up with Shami and Jo and walked into Oranjestad itself. It’s famed for its high end shops particularly in the Renaissance Mall. We walked swiftly through and then got thoroughly lost down the scruffy backstreets behind. Eventually, we found our way back, nipped into Zara where surprisingly, I was the one who bought a new blouse!

We rounded off our little private excursion with a bucket of beers in Lucy’s Bar for retired Surfers! Famous for its shots containing a Scorpion. Er….no thankyou! The girls all agreed that their favourite stop so far was Aruba. Personally….I loved the grit and buzz of Grenada and the beauty of St Lucia!