Category: Caribbean Cruise

March 16, 2023

It was a bit earlier of a start in Grenada, which we didn’t mind all that much since it was our last port. We started at the Spice Garden. Our tour took us on a short loop around the property. Our guide would pick the plants and pass them around for all of us to smell and try to guess the spice. 

They had so many different spices and plants there, it was fun to try to guess what it was. She also shared some background on how the plants are then harvested and ready for consumption. 

One example was cinnamon – I didn’t know until this tour how it was processed! The shoots are stripped of their bark and the peels are set out to dry in the sun. As this happens, the bark naturally curls into the cinnamon sticks you might be thinking of. 

There were other fun things like jackfruit, cacao, and the tallest avocado tree that I’ve ever seen. 

After the Spice Garden, we made our way to Grenada’s largest rum distillery. The tour wasn’t that interesting (my opinion), and we couldn’t take pictures inside. It was kind of just really hot and uncomfortable. Maybe it was just our tour guide? The rum was good though!

However, they had 19 different types of rum available to taste. I think we only tried 3 or 4. The rum was really good! So I can see why they are popular. We didn’t buy anything at that time, but we really liked their coconut rum and their mixed rum punch.

From there, we made our way to the beach. Once we got there, we were approached by a few different people trying to rent out their beach chairs. They were charging $5 for a chair – so we got a few chairs with Jill and Mario. Mario had also picked up a few little bottles of rum from the distillery to share while we were there.

This was our last chance to swim in the Caribbean – so I got right into the water. The beach was stunning, no surprise. We only had an hour there before having to head back to the cruise ship. 

We were still in our suits so we hit up the pool deck before freshening up for dinner. It was lobster night after all! I think Celebrity Cruises does this on every cruise, but they do one night where you dress up and they serve more expensive dishes – like lamb and lobster.

We went to another show after dinner, called iBroadway. It had a few good songs, but it wasn’t quite like the last cruise we were on where they took more current broadway songs. It was still entertaining, and we love watching shows.

This was our last port of the trip – and the next day would be starting our way back to San Juan before flying home.

Up Next:

-Sea day

March 15, 2023

We love snorkeling whenever we’re on vacation somewhere tropical. We were heading on an excursion titled “Swim with turtles, shipwrecks, and snorkel” which sounded like all of our favorite things. (Tour company was called Foster and Ince Cruise Services – couldn’t recommend them enough!)

There were two snorkel stops on the trip – and one to swim to a beach. The first stop was a shipwreck. (Emily, if you’re reading this – I’m sorry!) It was INCREDIBLE! 

The fish that were swimming there made you feel like you were in Finding Nemo – so bright and colorful! The coral growing off of it were so BIG! I’ve never seen so much marine life in one spot. We didn’t bother taking our phone in a waterproof bag since last time the pictures didn’t turn out. You’ll just have to use your imagination to visualize it!

We had 45 minutes there before we made our way to our next snorkel stop. This is where the sea turtles were! Within 3 minutes, Andy and I had spotted a small one in the distance. And over the next 20 minutes we saw 5-6 more – and two spotted leopard stingrays! 

At one point, a turtle almost flopped onto Andy! It was so cool to see! We had to be careful to give them space and not chase them – I think most people in the group were good about giving them room. 

One of the stingrays flew right by me! The second one spooked a lot of people – I guess people still have Steve Irwin in the back of their minds?!

Once we got back on the boat we just wanted to relax. Our tour company couldn’t take us to their normal beach because the water was so rough. A lot of people did get in and swim to shore, but it looked like it would be really hard to get back to the boat so we stayed on board. 

It was just so beautiful to sit in the sun surrounded by the turquoise colored water. They took us out on a short tour of the shore line and pointed out different landmarks, included one of the guest houses that Rihanna stayed at last. I guess whenever she comes to visit she stays in a guesthouse or a hotel in order to give back to the local economy, which I thought was pretty cool.

We cleaned up for dinner – and made our way to the show, “Unique 3” on the cruise ship. 2/3s of the performers were the ones we met the day before in a boutique. They were really talented – and they each had their own style of music. 

After that show we went to karaoke with Jill and Mario, who actually sing (unlike myself and Andy). It was pretty fun to watch/listen and dance when the songs were good. The Glee Club took over though – there were a lot more teenagers on this cruise, so that was the only bummer this time around. 

Up Next:

• St. George’s, Grenada
• Spice Garden, Rum Tasting & Beach

March 14, 2023 

We started the day off hopping on a bus and driving to Titou Gorge. I’ll preface this with – we had an idea of what we were getting into. But when we think of gorges… we think of the Columbia River Gorge – you walk into it. We had to swim into this one! 

This one was incredibly famous though! The second Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was filmed there. Once we are home, we plan on rewatching it. Our tour guides were able to point out specific features in it – and where the main characters “jumped in” (Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley). The water was incredibly refreshing, but once you started swimming you warmed up. 

The gorge swim wasn’t too long – and it ended in a waterfall. It was really incredible.

We hopped back on the bus and made our way to the hot springs. They were really great too – we were able to try out a bunch of different pools and they varied in different levels of hot. What we didn’t see when we were exploring the property was a spot where you could do mud baths. We wish would have seen it, but our time was wrapping up when saw it. 

It was also the full moon party that night – you were encouraged to wear white. So we stopped at a shop to see if we could find something for Andy to wear. We found a small boutique and there were two women in there shopping as well. After we started talking with them, we realized that they were actually singers on the cruise ship, which was pretty cool! We assured them that we would be at their show the next night. 

After dinner, we attended a performance called Elysium. It was a classic story about a fight between good and evil. The music was a play on some modern music – think “Everyone wants to rule the world” etc. The stage and costumes were pretty elaborate – so it was entertaining to watch.

After the show we made our way to the full moon party, which was fun a way to end the day. 

Up Next: 

• Bridgetown, Barbados
• Snorkeling

March 13, 2023

Cheers to 9 years! We celebrated by doing a sailing excursion. It wasn’t just a casual sailing day trip – this was different! This was the America’s Cup Sailing Regatta. We actually had to work during this excursion, which we were pretty excited about. While we were waiting for our water taxi to take us over to our sailboats, the man taking our tickets also assigned us our positions for the day.

Andy and I were both primary grinders – which they kept making the joke that we wouldn’t need to go to the gym that day. Two captains were selected to lead the different teams – and we were broken into the different teams. One team would get the Stars and Stripes (a race winning boat) and the other team would get True North.

The crew was fantastic – not us – the captain, first mate, etc. They made sure that we all understood our positions and if we felt uncomfortable we could switch. Some of the other positions were main grinders, winch whench, bartender, etc.

Ultimately, there were six of us that were primary grinders – and there were only four cranks. We got to enjoy the first leg of the trip and watch our new friends crank like there was no tomorrow. We were in a little pit – while we weren’t grinding. It was a lot of fun! And it was something we haven’t done before. We’ve sailed, but never were a part of the crew.

It truly was a race. There were a few times that I thought the boats were going to hit – which was pretty terrifying and cool at the same time. I didn’t see this, but Andy had overhead the captain actually yelling at the other boat. Apparently they almost actually hit us – so I guess we weren’t too far off base thinking we were going to die at one point. 😂

We lost the race. But we’re all winners here. It was a blast. After the race they brought us back to their “museum” basically just a gift shop. We decided it might be fun to walk around a bit before heading back to the ship. We stopped and had lunch. One of the restaurants that we walked past had taken drift wood after both Hurricane Irma/Maria to reconstruct. It’s a good reminder that no matter how beautiful these places are – they can also have extreme weather. Those hurricanes hit in 2017 – I wasn’t blogging then, but we were in Cancun and there were three hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico that September. It was a really rough year for the Caribbean.

After lunch we got back on the ship and got cleaned up. We hung out with Jill and Mario that evening. There was a magic show – and we Mario had some business to wrap up in the casino.

It was a great anniversary!

Up Next:

• Roseau, Dominica
• Titou Gorge and hot springs