Princess Cruise - March 2010
After two and a half days at sea, we had to miss Grand Caymen due to the port authority advising that it was too choppy to land the tenders from the ship to shore. This island is famous for it having 600 banks on the island and also for its marine life, especially stingrays. We then arrived in Montego Bay, Jamaica to disembark passengers that were finishing their two week cruise, and welcome a new contingent.
We proceeded on to Samana in the Domincan Republic, which I feel was not worth visiting, apart from seeing an off shore island there was little else to fill the day there. Our next port of call was the US Virgin Island of St Thomas, which was stunning, and home to Magens Beach, which has been voted as one of the top ten beaches in the world. Beware on cruise ship days, there are hundreds, probably a few thousand on the beach at any one time, and one has to pay $4 per person to go on to the beach. If you walk to the far end of the beach it is much quieter there.
From St Thomas we went to St Kitts/Nevis. We did the scenic railway trip around St Kitts which was most enjoyable and you were able to see most of the island from a great vantage point on the open air upper decks on the train. They used the train in days gone by to transport the sugar cane around the island ready for export.
After St Kitts/Nevis, a day on the beach at Sandals Antigua, as we travelled to Antigua for a week last November, details on one of my previous journals.
Our final stop was on the island of Dominica, which was lovely, we took a tour up into the rain forest and saw the beautiful Trafalgar Falls, and the sulphur mud pools.
And finally back to Barbados for our journey home. Barbados has beautiful beaches on the west coast and an excellent choice of hotels, towards the south of the island, more hotels and self catering complexes, and then you have rugged Atlantic coast which is great for surfing.
Overall a great holiday.
