Saturday, January 3 ~ Antigua ~ 7am to 4pm

Jason and I visited Antigua on our 2018 Celebrity Eclipse cruise, and while we had an enjoyable time on our full day beach-hopping and snorkeling boat tour with Eli’s Eco Tour, we knew we wanted to do something different on this cruise.  Antigua is known for having 365 beaches, one for every day of the year, but most of the tours I found involved taking a boat around the island and swimming to shore (similar to what we did in 2018).  We needed something different for this cruise that would be more 4-year-old-friendly, but it didn’t take me long to pick out our perfect excursion: Stingray City!  Jason and I visited Stingray City in Grand Cayman back in 2016 and we loved it, so I was thrilled when I found out there is a similar attraction in Antigua.  The main website for Stingray City didn’t give you an option to book a tour directly with them, so I sent them a message to ask about our options.  They replied that I needed to book through Princess since I was coming to Antigua on a cruise ship.  You already know how I feel about excursions through the cruise ship, so I searched for alternatives and found a company called Antigua Chiama IT Tours.  Their office was located very close to the cruise ship docks (in fact, I was pretty sure it was at the same location as where we met Eli’s Eco Tours so I could envision exactly how to get there), and they provided roundtrip transportation to Stingray City on a bus.  Once we arrived, there was a short 8-minute ride on a boat out to the sand bar, so that seemed reasonable for Ian, and we could feed and play with the stingrays for an hour and a half before returning to the bus for the drive back to the cruise port.  While the excursion seemed very expensive, costing $135 per adult, children aged 4 and under counted as “infants” and only cost $14, so it would only cost $284 for our family of 3.  I invited my brother to join us (this was definitely not an excursion that would interest my parents!), but he declined because his kids were too old for the infant pricing and it would have cost his family of 4 nearly $500!  I didn’t blame him for wanting to skip this tour, even though he did think his kids would enjoy it.  In all honesty, I was a little hesitant about if it would be safe for Ian, but I messaged the tour operator and they assured me it was safe for people of all ages as the water is calm and shallow (although it was likely to be too deep for Ian to stand and Jason or I would have to hold onto him), and the boat ride was very short.  

So remember how I mentioned that we needed to go to sleep early last night in preparation for an early wake up time this morning?  Well, we needed to meet our guide by 8am, so I wanted to leave the ship by 7:40am.  Now that we had a good routine that was working for us in the mornings, I knew I needed to wake up 2 hours before the time I wanted to leave the ship in order to have enough time to get myself ready and fed, and then to repeat the process with Ian.  That meant that my alarm was set for 5:40am this morning!  I don’t even wake up that early at home, so it’s amazing the things I am willing to do for an adventurous vacation!

It was still dark outside when I woke up, and by the time I got up to deck 16 for breakfast, I could see the first hints of light in the sky.  I stepped outside to the area around the aft pool and was greeted with a stunning view of the full moon shimmering against the water.

I guess there are some perks to waking up this early!  

Antigua looked so pretty with all the lights twinkling and the first moments of sunrise lighting up the sky.

I decided to streamline my breakfast this morning because I knew we would be back on the ship before lunch time, so there was no need to overstuff my belly.

By the time I finished eating, the ship was just starting to back into our berth.  

I got back to our cabin by 6:30am, and was not surprised to see that Jason and Ian were still asleep.  I woke them both up so Jason would have time to get dressed and go upstairs for his breakfast.  Ian usually takes a while to perk up in the mornings, so I hurried him along by suggesting he eat his waffle outside on the balcony.  While he ate, we were treated to a beautiful view of the sunrise over Antigua.

I spotted the yellow building with a thatched roof just a short walk away from the end of our pier.  That was where we needed to meet our tour guide, so it was nice to see how close it was to our ship.

Out in the distance, on top of the hill, we could see a huge church.  My parents had booked an island tour today so I had a feeling they would be visiting that church as, even from this distance, you could tell it was something worth seeing.

Once everyone was dressed and ready to go, we got off the ship at 7:45am.  Down on the pier, I realized we had a great view of the aft port side of the ship, which meant we could see our cabin!  

I don’t think I have pointed it out to you yet, so allow me to make it more obvious.  In the photo below, the yellow square is my cabin, and the red rectangle is my parents’ cabin.  This gives a really good perspective to see just how massive their balcony was!  

We walked through the port gates and onto the boardwalk along the water.

Even with Ian’s slow walking, it only took us 5 minutes to walk to the meeting spot for our tour.

There were a few people sitting beside the building and they asked who we were looking for.  We told them the name of our tour company, and they said our guide would be here soon.  A few minutes later, a lady walked up with a list of names on a piece of paper including mine.  She introduced herself as our guide for today, and her name was… Phoenix!  We all got a kick out of that and told her that we live in Phoenix, Arizona.  It turns out that Phoenix was not her birth name, but more of a nickname that she adopted after all the struggles she has endured and overcome in her life.  

Phoenix led us and another couple to her minivan that was parked out on the street.  She said there was already another couple in the car who she had picked up from their hotel earlier this morning, so there were 7 of us on this tour today.  Jason, Ian, and I climbed into the back row of the minivan, which was a tight squeeze so we were glad that Ian is so small!  Phoenix said it would take about 35 minutes to drive across the island to Stingray City, but we were early enough that she would have some time to point out a few landmarks along the way.

Within 2 minutes of driving away from the port, Phoenix pulled over to point out the oldest Anglican Church in Antigua.  At first, I thought she was talking about this little building… 

Then, Phoenix pulled the car forward a little more and I noticed the spires peaking out from behind those tall trees.

I realized this was the same church that I saw from our balcony this morning!  Ironically, the photo I took from the ship was much better than anything I could capture from the car because the tall trees blocked my view.

Next, we drove past a mural that was painted by school children from Antigua and Barbuda.

Much like Martinique, Antigua grows a lot of sugar cane.  This used to be a huge sugar cane factory, but Phoenix said it burned down and they did not have the finances to rebuild it.

Next, we drove past a huge cricket stadium.  It was built in 2006 and used to host major sporting events including the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Phoenix pointed out that the colors of the seats inside the stadium were in the pattern of the Antigua and Barbuda flag.

Just beyond the cricket stadium, there was a random herd of donkeys on the side of the road.  This was at the intersection of two major roads, each with several lanes of traffic, so I had to wonder how they got out there!

Phoenix passed around examples of their currency, the Eastern Caribbean Dollar.

Phoenix pointed out this beautiful view overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  This meant we had driven across the entire island since our ship was docked on the Caribbean Sea side.

We pulled into the parking lot at Stingray City at 8:50am and climbed out of the minivan.

Across the lawn, we could see that there were already around 100 people here from a cruise ship tour.  Phoenix said the Stingray City guides would take over as our guides, and she would be waiting for us when we returned.  She recommended that we leave anything we did not want to get wet in her minivan, and she had rash guards for us to borrow if we needed them.  Once we were all ready, she told us to go over to where the other people were gathered and the Stingray City guides would explain how things would work.

The guide explained a few safety things about how to safely hold and touch the stingrays.  He said we were not allowed to wear any kind of water shoes, and that we should shuffle our feet when walking on the sandbar to avoid stepping on a stingray.  They had life vests available for us if we wanted them, but they were optional for adults.  We brought a life jacket from home that we knew fit Ian well, and I was glad I did because their child-sized jackets would have been way too big for him.  They also provided snorkels and masks, but of course we had our own, including toddler-sized goggles for Ian.

The guide said that we should split up into groups as they had 5 boats to bring us all out to stingray city.  Three of the boats were smaller, holding 16 people each, and the other two were much larger and held up to 40 people.  We picked one of the smaller 16-person boats, but I later realized that was a mistake because the small boats didn’t have any shade over the seating area (only at the very back where the person driving the boat was standing), and we were seated on benches without a back rest (which is definitely not ideal for Ian, especially not on a fast-moving boat).  The larger boats had real seats with full back rests, and they had a canopy covering the full length of the boat so everyone could sit comfortably in the shade.

We sandwiched Ian between us on the bench for the boat ride to make sure he stayed safe.

The ride out to the sandbar only took 8 minutes, and luckily the water wasn’t too choppy and we felt secure on the boat.

When we arrived, the boat tied up to a floating platform, and the guides helped us all climb out.  There were ladders at the end of the platform so it was easy to climb down into the water.  Jason climbed down first, then I helped Ian climb down so that Jason could carry him while I climbed in to join them.

I could immediately tell that the water here was much calmer than when we did the same tour in Grand Cayman.  I remember being thrown around with the waves last time, but today, that wasn’t an issue.  When we first entered the water, it was too deep for me to stand, so I put on my snorkel and started to swim towards where I could see other people gathering.  Right away, a giant stingray swam below me!

You had to be careful because there were long chains under the water, I assume used as a tether for the floating platform.  

It was frustrating that the guides wouldn’t let us wear our water shoes because there were a lot of rocks in this area and we were afraid we would cut our feet without shoes on.  I understand that they don’t want you to wear flip flops or sandals that aren’t secure on your feet, but I don’t understand why we couldn’t wear our aquasocks that are very tight and definitely wouldn’t have fallen off.  

At first, it was extremely chaotic.  There were well over 100 people in the water, all trying to see and touch the stingrays.  There were 4 or 5 guides who were different from the guides driving the boats.  These guides must just stay out in the water all day to assist with letting visitors hold the stingrays, but we really struggled with these guides.  They were all incredibly rude and borderline aggressive about getting everyone lined up in the water to hold the stingrays.  They kept yelling at us to stay in line, but there were multiple lines and no one really knew where they were supposed to stand.  When it was finally our turn, they insisted on us smiling for their photos on their camera even though I had my own camera and asked them to use my camera.  We knew our time holding the stingray would be extremely limited and we didn’t want to waste that time posing for photos we had no intention of buying.  We had seen them take photos with other people’s cameras so we knew that wasn’t an issue, and they were just giving us a hard time because they were hoping we would buy their expensive photos.   When they finally took our photo, one of the guides stuck his hand in front of the camera!  Seriously?!

I literally had to beg them to take a second photo.

At least that one came out better, but the whole experience was really off-putting.  It was really a shame that Phoenix couldn’t be our guide out here with the stingrays because she was so kind.  These guides out in the water were all so rude that they kind of ruined the experience for us.

After that, we tried to do some snorkeling, but the guides kept yelling at us to move out of the way from where they were standing.  There was a strong current in this area and it pushed everyone in that direction, like it or not!  There were just way too many people for the space we were allowed to be in.  I resorted to just planting my feet and sticking my head under the water in hopes that I would see a stingray swim by.  There was just no way to actually go snorkeling here.  

I tried to capture how busy it was in the photo, but it doesn’t do it justice.  Apologies for the water mark in the middle of my lens!

The water was very murky, so it was hard to see the stingrays approaching.  I only saw them when they were very close to me, so it was hard to take good photos.

Despite all the chaos, Ian had so much fun touching the rays and laughing whenever one swam by him.  He thought they were tickling him, and when they slid up his body, he thought they were giving him a hug.  Jason ended up holding Ian the whole time because the water was so deep that when I stood, only my head was above water and that wouldn’t have worked for me holding up Ian safely.

I think part of the problem was how they organized things here.  When we did this same activity in Grand Cayman, your own guide from your small tour boat got in the water with you and helped you play with the stingrays so everyone had a lot more personal attention and time to interact with the animals.  Here, there were only 4 or 5 guides to be shared amongst over 100 people, and no one knew which guide we should go to.  It was just very disorganized and I think it would have been better if they had more guides and assigned each person to a specific guide so we would all know exactly who was our guide and we would have a more structured turn with the stingrays.

Anyway, I snapped a few more photos under the water and then I was ready to get out.

In total, we were in the water for 30 minutes.  I took this photo when I was back on the floating platform, so you can get a better idea of how crowded it was (and there were already a bunch of people who had gotten out of the water before us).  

This whole experience would have been a whole lot better if it was less crowded.  I did not realize when I booked this tour that we would be lumped together with all of the people from the cruise ship tour.  There were only 7 people in Phoenix’s minivan, and I thought those would be the only people in my group once we got in the water.  That small group experience is what I thought I was buying a ticket for, so it was disappointing to be lumped together with so many other people.

We climbed back onto our boat and got dried off and settled while we waited for everyone else to return to the boat.  In total, we spent 45 minutes here at the swim platform, then made the 8-minute boat ride back to the island.  Once back at the offices, the guides handed out cups of very strong rum punch.  Maybe they knew how rude the guides were out in the water and that we would all need a little rum to take the edge off??

Obviously, Ian couldn’t have any rum punch, so Phoenix brought him over a little package of cookies to have as a special treat.  That was really thoughtful of her, and we appreciated the gesture.  We spent about 15 minutes enjoying our drinks, then piled back in the minivan at 10:45am for our drive back to the cruise port.

On the way, Phoenix pointed out this fence made of old car parts.

So remember how when we originally got in the minivan this morning, Phoenix said there were already 2 people inside who she had picked up from a hotel?  Well we needed to drop them off prior to returning to the cruise port.  Unfortunately, that added an extra 45 minutes to our ride.  We were originally supposed to be back at the port by 11:15am.  We were on track for that timing, but we didn’t actually get there until after 12 noon because of the detour.  

On the bright side, we were boarding well ahead of the rush, so there were no lines at the gangway.

Back on board, we went straight up to the Lido buffet for lunch.  Most passengers were still out in port, so it wasn’t too busy.  I filled my plate with options to share with Ian, and we found an empty table next to the window to sit and eat.

I couldn’t decide what I wanted for dessert, so I took an assortment and cut them all in half to share.

After lunch, Jason took Ian back to the cabin for their showers and to nap.  I decided to relax near the aft pool so I wouldn’t disturb their nap.  Since I was near the bar, I couldn’t resist ordering an Ultimate Cooler.

It looked like some more clouds were rolling in.

I stayed out there for about an hour, then snuck back into the cabin to shower and get ready for dinner.

As I mentioned earlier in this review, my mom, brother, and I discussed a few nights of the cruise when we would all dress in coordinated outfits.  Tonight was one of those nights, and we decided to all wear nice casual outfits in shades of light/medium blue.  We didn’t love the photos we took in random locations around the ship earlier in the cruise, so tonight, we decided we would have one of the ship’s photographers take the photo.  It cost $25 to purchase one digital print, but we decided that was worth it because all 3 families would have access to the file to make our own prints in whatever size we wanted.

Hoping to take our photo before eating dinner when someone might spill something on their clothes, we all met near the mid-ship elevators on deck 6 at 4:45pm.  We didn’t realize it, but the ship’s photographers don’t start taking evening photos until 5pm.  The good thing about that was it meant we had unobstructed access to the giant gold heart!  Usually, the ship’s photographers hog this heart so we were never able to take a photo here.  We all took turns taking fun photos with the heart, and of course, the kids couldn’t resist climbing on it!

Mimi and Pop wanted a photo with their 3 grandkids:

We still had a few minutes to spare before the photographers were set up, so I left the rest of the group and wandered over to the Bellini Bar for a Raspberry Romance, with prosecco, chambord, and raspberry puree.

By the time I got back, I could see the kids were getting a little restless.  At least they skewed in the direction of silly behavior, as opposed to Ian’s usual hangry behavior (especially this close to dinner time!)

We decided that instead of staying in this location and having the ship’s photographer retake the photos we just took with the gold heart, that we should go up to deck 7 and find a more simple background for our group photo.  Easily enough, there was a grey background directly above us on deck 7 near the mid-ship elevators, and it would contrast nicely with our blue outfits.  The photographer took about 10 different photos with the whole group and with just my parents and the 3 kids.  He said they would be available to preview in our app by the end of the night.  

I will just skip ahead to finish up this part of the story… As it turned out, the photos weren’t available in the app until the next morning (it wasn’t a problem for us, but just letting you know the timeline).  My parents decided to buy a package of 5 digital prints for $100 (that’s how I have access to the professional photo of them with the kids in Dominica), and this was the photo that they picked to purchase for our group photo.  I think everyone looks great, including the kids, but I don’t think my mom realized that she was the only one not looking at the camera when she picked this image.  It was really hard to see the fine details when looking at the preview on your phone screen, so she probably should have taken the time to look at the photos using the larger computer monitors in the photo gallery.  Oh well!  Otherwise, it is a great photo and definitely came out better than anything we were able to arrange on our own under the harsh lighting in the public spaces on the ship.

By the time we finished taking our photos, it was 5:15pm and time for us to head down to the Amalfi dining room for dinner.  Tonight was another night when my parents wanted to eat dinner in the suites dining room, so we parted ways for the evening, and my brother’s family and mine had a little more space at our usual dinner table.

For my appetizer, I ordered the mushroom arancini.  I saw that the description included “zesty” tomato sauce, which I know is code for “spicy.”  I asked Bernardo if it was possible to swap it for just regular tomato sauce, and he said that was no problem at all.

One of the entrees on the adult menu was chicken parmigiana.  This is one of the few dishes that I know Ian loves.  After several nights of him only eating plain pasta with no protein for dinner, I asked Bernardo if I could order the adult entree for Ian’s dinner, and of course he said yes.

This is the face of a boy who is thrilled to have one of his favorite foods for dinner, and after I took this photo, he devoured it!

I probably should have ordered the same dish for myself, but instead, I ordered the giant meatballs in creamy truffle polenta.  This dish was a miss for me.  I didn’t care for the texture of the polenta, and I thought the meatballs were too dense.  This was one of the very few dishes that I didn’t care for throughout all the dinners we ate in the dining room, so overall, I thought those were pretty good odds!

Luckily, I didn’t go hungry because Jason and I also ordered the creamy spinach and mushroom gnocchi to share.  This dish was a 10/10 and I could have eaten the whole thing myself!

We skipped dessert tonight, and took Ian straight up to camp when they opened at 7pm.  During dinner, my brother mentioned that his family was going to the 7pm show, so they offered to save us seats in what had become our usual section (way at the back of the theater in the rows just to the port side of the lighting control booth).  By now, we knew we could rely on the cruise director to spend a few minutes talking prior to the performer taking the stage, so we trusted that we wouldn’t miss any of the show.

Tonight’s performer was Rob Watkins, a comedian, magician, and ventriloquist who has performed at the Magic Castle in Hollywood.  We all loved his act, but we found ourselves watching his image on the big screens as opposed to seeing him on the main stage because we were sitting too far back to really appreciate his ventriloquism.  I guess we should have opted for seats closer to the stage for this act!

The show ended a few minutes before 8pm, at which point Jason and I went straight back to the far aft of the ship for the Marriage Match show in the Vista Lounge.  This was rated PG-16, so my brother had to skip it because his kids were too young (just one of the many reasons we took Ian to camp after dinner!).  Apparently, many other passengers had the same plan we did, because when we arrived at the Vista Lounge, it was crazy crowded!  Jason and I split up, each checking a different section of the lounge for empty seats, but every single seat was either occupied or reserved.  Did these people just camp out in here all night to ensure they had a seat for the show?!  Admitting defeat, we got a couple of drinks from the bar (an elderflower and meyer lemon spritz for me, and a Manhattan for Jason), and we stood behind a row of seats towards the back of the room.

When the game started, the host introduced 3 couples that he had pre-selected from the audience.  Not that Jason and I had any desire to participate, but I found it odd that they pre-selected the couples because when I have seen this game played on other ships, they usually pick contestants as part of the show.  I wonder how early those people had to be in the Vista Lounge, and how they were chosen as the 3 contestants?

We stayed for the first 3 questions, then decided we were tired from standing, so we left in search of dessert.

We had yet to try one of the premium desserts included in the Plus Package, so we went down to the gelateria at the Piazza on deck 5.  You could order a scoop of gelato, an enormous ice cream sundae, or a slice of cake.

I opted for a slice of black forest cake, and Jason had a scoop of gelato.  Both were delicious, but I can’t imagine anyone ordering two of these desserts every day of the cruise (that’s what is included with the Plus Package).

When we were done, we went up to find seats in Princess Live.  We knew we would be early for the 9:15pm trivia, but the theme was “Guess That 80’s Song” and we knew it would be heavily attended, so we had to arrive early if we wanted a place to sit.

As it turned out, this was not our favorite way to play music trivia.  We were right in assuming it would be crowded, as it was standing-room-only by the time trivia started.  The problem was that the songs the crew member selected were very easy, and they played half the song so everyone heard the chorus.  At that point, everyone in the room knew the song, and the host just let us scream out the name of the song as we went along, so there was no winner because everyone had the answer spoiled for them.  It was more of an 80’s music sing along than music trivia, and it felt pointless.

We stayed until the end, and by then it was time to pick up Ian at camp and head back to the cabin for bedtime.

Today’s drinks total: 15

Up next: a much-needed sea day after 5 days in port

Friday, January 2 ~ Martinique ~ 7am to 5pm

Aside from Princess Cay, Martinique was the only other new port for me on this cruise, so I was very excited to research what it had to offer.  I was a little nervous about the language barrier, as this is a French-speaking island, so not all of the tours are offered in English.  Also, unlike most Caribbean islands which accept US Dollars, Martinique’s primary currency is Euros, so I knew I needed to book a tour online and pay with my credit card, as opposed to hiring a taxi to take us to a local beach where they would expect payment in cash.  The further I got into my research, it seemed that Martinique’s tourism was more geared towards people taking land vacations as opposed to cruises, so while I did find several options of things that would be fun to do, most of them left from locations across the island from the cruise port and there was no way to get there.  Even Princess only offered 10 excursions at this port (as opposed to 20+ options in the other ports), so our options proved very limited.

One option that I seriously considered was a DIY beach day.  There are a stretch of beaches located across the bay from the cruise port.  These beaches are frequented by locals and tourists alike, with some offering more calm, sandy beaches and others offering good snorkeling.  There is a ferry which goes back and forth across the bay, so it would be possible to walk from the cruise port to the ferry, ride the ferry across the bay, then wander around in search of a good beach to hang out on for a few hours.  Unfortunately, I had a lot of concerns about this plan.  Firstly, there wasn’t much information available online so it was hard to plan out all the details in advance.  I like to know exactly what we are doing and how we are doing it, especially when traveling with a child, so ‘winging it’ in a country where I don’t speak the language didn’t seem ideal.  In theory, the ferry runs on a schedule, but I read several reports of the ferry running late and the schedule not being predictable, so again, that was not ideal, especially when traveling with a child.  I didn’t want to spend the whole day worrying about the return ferry and not knowing exactly what time we had to get back to the ferry terminal to ensure we would get back to the ship before sail away.  I read varied information about exactly where the ferry terminal is located in relation to the cruise ship dock, with some people saying it was up to a 30 minute walk.  Thirty minutes of adults walking would take us closer to an hour when walking with Ian (and we couldn’t bring a stroller if we were going to the beach).  There is also the issue of currency and possibly needing Euros to buy ferry tickets and food or renting loungers/umbrellas at the beach.  All of this just seemed very complicated and stressful, especially with such limited information available online before the cruise.  In the end, I decided that booking a tour with cruise port pick up/drop off and where we could pay online in advance using a credit card just seemed to be our best option in this port, even if that meant spending more money than a DIY beach day.

Tours in Martinique were either on a boat (sailboat/catamaran/speedboat) to go snorkeling, or in a van/bus for a land-based island tour.  We didn’t think Ian was old enough to be safe on a boat tour where he would have to swim in deep water (remembering that after 3 summers of weekly swim lessons, he can still barely float!), so we focused on the island tour options.  Martinique is shaped like a vertical oval, with the cruise port in the middle of the coastline, so most tour operators either take you north or south, depending on what you want to see.  The north end of the island seemed less developed, with tours taking you on a hike through the forest to see a waterfall.  While that sounded beautiful, that didn’t seem appropriate for a 4-year old, so we opted for a tour of the southern end of the island, with a stop at the rum factory (again, definitely not 4-year-old appropriate, but at least it was safer than hiking through a forest!), and an hour and a half at Les Salines beach.  This beach was one of the top reasons I booked this tour.  The photos online were stunning, and reviews of the beach described it as one of those beaches you would see on a wall calendar, with palm trees swooping out over the ocean.  Because it was located on the far southern tip of the island, most cruise ship passengers don’t get to see that part of the island and it isn’t as crowded as the beaches I mentioned earlier which are accessible by the ferry.  Honestly, I wasn’t totally thrilled with the idea of this tour, especially since it seemed too expensive for what we were doing ($74 per adult, $58 per child), but I just couldn’t find anything else that worked for us and this seemed better than staying on the ship and skipping the port entirely.  Once we picked this tour, I asked my parents and brother if they wanted to join us, but everyone passed.  My parents aren’t really beach people, and my brother thought it was too expensive.  I went ahead and booked the tour through Viator.

Before I continue detailing our day spent in Martinique, I think it is important to mention something else which nearly prevented us from taking this cruise had we not found out in time.  Before this cruise, Ian had taken 3 prior cruises (two to the Mexican Riviera out of California, and one to Alaska out of Seattle).  Each time, we used an original copy of his birth certificate as his boarding documentation and we never had any issues.  Children’s passports are only valid for 5 years, so we wanted to delay purchasing one for Ian until it was absolutely necessary (ie: taking an international flight, which he has yet to do).  Jason and I have always used our passports.  

In October, I was reading through some of the fine print about the documentation required to take this cruise.  I had assumed Ian would be fine to use his birth certificate as he had done in the past, and that was true for nearly every island in the Caribbean… except two: Guadalupe and Martinique.  Wait, what?!?  I re-read the fine print again to make sure I was understanding it correctly, and even did some Google searches to get more clarification.  Apparently, Guadalupe and Martinique require a passport for everyone who visits their island, even when coming from a cruise ship.  There are often exceptions made for children under age 16, but not on these two islands.  Every single person is required to have a passport when your ship docks there, even if the passenger does not plan to get off the ship and step foot on the island!  I called Princess just to be sure I understood everything correctly, and yes, sure enough, we were scheduled to visit one of the only two islands where Ian was required to have a passport.  

Panic set in.  We were now just 2 months away from flying to Florida to start this vacation.  I was very concerned that we wouldn’t have time to get him a new passport in time.  I immediately went online and booked him an appointment for a new passport application at the local processing office near our house.  Luckily, I was able to get an appointment the following week on October 15, but that was still cutting it too close for comfort.  Fun fact: AAA takes free passport photos for their members in some states, including Arizona, so at least that saved us some money.  At the passport office, they said there was no need to pay for expedited processing and that we would receive Ian’s passport in a week or two.  This was during a government shutdown, so I was very worried that would impact us, but he said that it would not be an issue, and that since Ian is a minor, his application would be processed faster because he is unlikely to have a lengthy criminal history requiring extensive background checks.  Makes sense, I guess!  

Sure enough, I got an email 10 days later stating that Ian’s application was approved, and his new passport arrived in the mail a few days after that.  Whew!  I was so glad that all worked out so seamlessly because that would have been a disaster if we got to the Port Everglades and were denied boarding because we didn’t realize he needed a passport!  By the way, my brother had to go through the same process to get passports for both of his kids, and he also received them quickly.  Consider this your warning if you ever take a cruise that ports in either Martinique or Guadalupe… everyone needs a passport!!!  I actually found it odd that our travel agent did not know this detail.  She knew Ian was planning to use his birth certificate, so it would have been helpful had she notified us he would actually need a passport and we could have gotten it sooner and avoided the stressful last minute application.

Okay, now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

When my alarm went off at 6:40am, we were already docked in Martinique.  Why are these ports getting earlier and earlier every day?!  I got dressed as quietly as I could, being careful not to wake the boys any earlier than necessary, then I snuck out of the cabin in search of breakfast.  This was the quietest and the emptiest I had ever seen the hallway…

I was upstairs and eating my usual breakfast by 7am.  

After I finished eating, I took a quick peek outside.  It was shaping up to be another beautiful day in paradise!

Way off in the distance, we could see another cruise ship docked at a different port on the other side of the city.

Continuing with our routine, I brought a waffle back to the cabin for Ian to eat for breakfast, and sent Jason up to get his own food.  We had to meet our tour guide outside the port gates by 9am.  I appreciated that our tickets included detailed directions on how to find our guide depending on which of the 2 ports we were docked at.  I double checked the papers that were left in our cabin last night to figure out which port we were at, and luckily it did say we were at the Tourelles Cruise Terminal.  Not knowing exactly how long it would take us to get off the ship, exit the port, and locate our tour guide, we left the cabin at 8:30am.  As it played out, the port was really small and as soon as we exited the port gates, we saw our guide holding up a sign with our name on it.  I really appreciate when the guides make it so easy and stress-free to find them!  It was only 8:43am, so we still had a few minutes to wait for the other people on our tour to find us.

A few minutes later, our guide said we were all set, and led us through the parking lot to a fairly new 25 passenger bus.  She introduced herself as Mariela, and our driver was Jonas.  We had about 20 people on the tour with us, so it was a fairly full bus.  There was a chance we would have as many as 50 people on the tour, requiring a full-sized coach bus, so I guess this was better than it could have been.  

Once everyone was seated, we headed out for our first stop.  On the way, we saw miles and miles of sugar cane fields lining the highway.

The first stop on our tour was Trois Rivieres rum factory.

The symbol  of the rum factory was a windmill, and it was easy to see why:

The grounds were beautiful, and we started off with a tour through the facility, guided by Mariela.

The sidewalk was painted to resemble a river, as in Trois Rivieres, or Three Rivers.

Mariela showed us the sugar cane plant, which was more than double her height.

Then she showed us this banana tree.  She said both crops were common throughout the island.

We followed Mariela further along the path.

Ian is always happy when he gets to climb (or in this case, descend) stairs…

Mariela explained something about this tree, but I can’t remember what she said.  I just thought it was pretty, and that the base looked like a mermaid’s tail!

There were also fan palm trees growing throughout the property.  There was a ton of fruit growing on this tree but it was not ripe yet.

The grounds here were lush and so inviting to visitors, with many benches in the shade where you could sit and enjoy the scenery.

Next, Mariela took us on the tour of the buildings where they produce the rum.

You could easily visit this factory on your own and do a self-guided tour because they had signs explaining each step of the process.

As we saw on our drive here from the cruise port, Martinique grows a lot of sugar cane.  Not surprisingly, Trois Rivieres grows it here on their property to use when making rum.

First, these machines chop and grind the sugar cane plant.

Then, they use these machines to extract juice from the sugar cane, which is then filtered and pumped into fermentation vats.

These fermentation vats could each hold 3000 liters of sugar cane juice.

The rum is then aged in oak barrels inside the cellar, but we were not able to enter that building (I’m not really sure why).  

While we were listening to Mariela explain the aging and bottling process, this cat came over to say hello.  I think this was Ian’s favorite part of the tour!

After Mariela was finished with the tour, she escorted us back up the hill to the tasting room so we could try a few samples of rum.

We were offered tastes of 3 types of rum, but as soon as I tasted the first one, I knew it was not for me.  I wished they had some fruit juice to mix with the rum because I would have much preferred it as a rum punch, but I guess that defeats the purpose of trying their specially aged and crafted rums.

After my first sample, I decided to use my time more efficiently and took Ian to find the bathrooms.  They were quite a hike away from the tasting room, located back behind the factory buildings.  It’s too bad I didn’t inquire about the facilities earlier while we were still down in that direction touring the factory.  The bathrooms were clean and spacious, and it was a good thing we used them now because this was the only bathroom we saw all day!  We didn’t know it yet, but there were no bathrooms at the beach.

As we made our way back up the hill to the tasting room, I noticed a group of people crowded together and looking down at something on the ground.  When I got closer, I saw they were watching this vibrant caterpillar crawling across the sidewalk.  It was a good thing someone noticed him and bent down to take a look because that likely stopped someone from stepping on him!

In total, we spent 40 minutes here at the rum factory.  It obviously wasn’t the highlight of our cruise, but it was an interesting place to visit and it was nice to have a little something else to do besides just spending the whole day at the beach.  Mariela gathered everyone together and said it was time to get back on the bus to head off for our next stop.

I thought our next stop was to go straight to the beach, so I was surprised when Jonas pulled the bus over to the side of the road.  Mariela said we could get off the bus at this park for a scenic view point.  There was even a little gazebo where we could stand for shade.

The park had these large signs, but the words were all in French so I couldn’t understand them.

**0956

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Looking straight across the bay, we could see Club Med (although honestly, we were too far away to really see any details at the resort).

To the right, we could see a large marina with tons of boats.  I had some suspicions in the moment, and just Googled it for confirmation, that this was where we would have had to meet some of the boat tours I researched.  We were really far from the cruise port at this point, and I can only imagine how expensive it would have been to hire a taxi to get here.  That just made me more confident in my decision to keep things simple and take a tour that provided roundtrip transportation from/to the cruise port!

If you look very closely, you can see St. Lucia out in the distance in this photo.  Mariela said it is usually too hazy to see as far as St. Lucia, so we were lucky today.  

We only stayed here for about 5 minutes, so it was just long enough to take a few photos and admire the view.  Then, we all piled back onto the bus to head down to the beach.

It took about 30 minutes to drive down to Les Salines beach.  When we arrived, it was about 11am local time and the parking lot was PACKED!  There were so many cars lining the street leading towards the beach, and there definitely weren’t any parking spots big enough for our bus.  Jonas was nice enough to let us all out close to the beach entrance, then he drove off to find somewhere to park.  Mariela escorted us along this boardwalk and down to the beach.

Mariela showed us the spot where she would be sitting in the shade of the palm trees, so we would know where to find her if we needed her for anything.  She said we would have 2 hours here at the beach and that we should meet back at this spot by 1pm local time.  Before we all dispersed, she surprised us by pulling out a bottle of rum and a carton of guava juice from her cooler.  She gave everyone a plastic cup and then made us each a cup of rum punch.  They really like their rum punch to be very strong down in Martinique!  I took one sip and immediately asked her to top me off with some more guava juice!

This area right near the beach entrance seemed too crowded for my liking.

I assumed it would be less crowded if we walked further down along the beach, and asked Mariela if we should go left or right.  She said to go down to the right as that was her favorite spot on the beach.  Sounds good to me!  

We continued walking until we reached the end of the section where vendors were renting lounge chairs and umbrellas.  There were still plenty of people around, but it wasn’t nearly as crowded as at the beach entrance.  We found a nice flat spot of sand under the shade of the palm trees, and laid out our towels to set up camp for our time here.

Ian was eager to play in the ocean, so Jason took him down to the water while I spent a few minutes walking along the beach.

The beach was stunning, with soft white sand, bright blue water, and palm trees sweeping out over the beach.  I have a feeling it was more crowded today than normal because this was Friday of New Year’s weekend and I am sure that even the locals were at the beach to enjoy their time off.

I didn’t want to stray too far from the boys, so I turned around to head back towards our towels.

I sat in the shade for a few minutes, just relaxing and people watching.  Just a word of caution… Martinique is a French territory, and the beaches here have different modesty requirements than the beaches in the States, for example.  We noticed a handful of women walking down the beach topless, but luckily, we didn’t see anyone fully nude.  I was a little concerned about how Ian would react, but he was too busy playing to notice anything out of the ordinary, and we certainly didn’t draw his attention to it, so it was a non-issue.  I was careful to avoid taking photos when these people were nearby, so hopefully there’s nothing too risque in the background of any of my pictures.

Eventually, I decided to join the boys in the ocean.  The water was the perfect temperature and felt very refreshing.

Ian was having so much fun trying to step on the water as it came ashore.

I had brought a few pre-packaged granola bars from home to take with us on port days, so we each had a little snack while we enjoyed the beach views from our towel in the shade.

Around 12:45pm, we packed up our stuff and headed back to meet Mariela.  Instead of walking back along the beach, we opted to walk along the street just behind the trees where we were sitting.  There were a few stalls set up back there, selling clothing, bathing suits, and souvenirs.

There was also a small restaurant.  It’s too bad we didn’t see this earlier or maybe we would have bought something for lunch (although now that I think of it, they would have had to take credit cards because we didn’t have any Euros to pay in cash).

We made our way back to the main entrance to the beach where we saw Mariela sitting, and waited there for the rest of the group to join us.

When we were all there, Mariela escorted us out to the parking lot where Jonas was waiting with the bus.  He was double parked, so I have no idea where he went for the last 2 hours, but at least he was able to bring the bus close to the beach for us to re-board.  The bus ride back to the cruise ship took exactly 1 hour, and pretty much everyone on the bus took a nap… except Ian!  Even Jason fell asleep for most of the ride, but Ian refused to close his eyes and just kept talking to me the entire ride so of course, that meant I didn’t get to nap either.  He was hungry, so it was a good thing I brought snacks from home.  He ended up eating all of the pretzels and goldfish crackers I had brought with me, which ultimately meant he wasn’t hungry for lunch when we got back on the ship.  It was far from a nutritious lunch, but at least it kept him quiet while everyone else was sleeping on the bus.  It was a huge relief when I finally saw the ship from my window and knew we were almost back at the port.

Jonas dropped us off right next to the port gates promptly at 2pm.  Overall, we enjoyed this tour and appreciated that we got to see a lot of the coastline of Martinique.  I later spoke to my brother, and he said he and his family took a 30 minute walk into town, but didn’t find much worth seeing and returned to the ship before noon.  My parents found another couple and shared a taxi ride into town (since there was no chance they would walk 30 minutes to get there), and they also just poked around in some of the shops for a little while before returning to the ship.  I was glad we booked this excursion in advance and had the opportunity to see more of the island.  

As a side note, I just looked a little closer at Google Maps regarding the ferry to the public beach.  Remember how I saw another cruise ship docked on the other side of the city earlier this morning?  Well it turns out that is the real cruise terminal, and the ferry leaves from right next to there.  We were docked at the commercial shipping port, which Google says is a 25 minute walk to the ferry dock.  There was no way to know which port we would dock at until the night before we arrived and our steward left that paper on our bed, so had we planned to take the ferry to the beach, we would have been really annoyed that we weren’t docking at the tourist cruise port right next to the ferry dock.  Again, I am very happy with my decision to book this tour for our first visit to Martinique!

We were back on the ship by 2:15pm.  Jason took Ian back to the cabin to shower and nap, while I went up to the Lido buffet in search of something for lunch.  Unfortunately for me, there was not one single protein in the entire buffet that I could eat.  Every single option was spicy, and I really cannot tolerate spicy food.  There was an Indian station, a Mexican station, and one other generic station, but literally every protein was spicy.  There was a salad bar so I guess I could have made a salad, but I really wanted something with protein in it.  I had just eaten pizza for lunch yesterday, so I didn’t really want that again.  The line for the Salty Dog was extremely long, whereas there were no lines at any of the other places, so obviously I wasn’t the only person who found the other options limited.  

I waited in line for 15 minutes, and when it was finally my turn, they said it would be another 30 minute wait for my order to be ready (even before I told them what my order was!).  I told the lady taking the orders that all I wanted was just one plain hot dog with nothing on it, and at first, she said it would still be a 30 minute wait.  Why don’t they just have plain hot dogs and hamburgers always ready to go?  I understand if you want one of the specialty options where they need to make it fresh for you with those specific toppings, but I just wanted one plain hot dog.  There was a manager standing nearby, and he overheard my pleas and said he could get me a hot dog without having to wait.  I thanked him profusely, then went to the condiments station, only to find that they were out of ketchup!  Seriously?!  There was a passenger standing there who said he already told the crew and someone went in the back to get more ketchup but he had been waiting a few minutes and it still wasn’t replenished.  I didn’t know how much longer it would take and I was famished by this point, so I took my hot dog into the buffet area and found some ketchup in there.  When I finally sat down to eat, I was pleasantly surprised by this hot dog.  It was the perfect combination of crispy skin and juicy meat, and the bun was just the right length and thickness to create a perfect ratio of hot dog to bun in every bite.  I’m not exaggerating… this was one of the best hot dogs I have ever had!

After I inhaled my hot dog, I went back to the cabin to shower.  I shouldn’t have been surprised to see that Ian was still awake and fighting his nap.  I took over negotiating with Ian so Jason could go up to the gym for an hour to do his run.  Ian ended up just playing in the cabin while I took my shower and got dressed for the evening.  Ian was still fighting his nap when Jason returned from his run, so he took a quick shower and we decided to just head out and get an early start on our evening.

Our first stop was at the Crown Grill Bar.  I ordered a Champagne Cosmo, with Absolut Elyx vodka, cointreau, champagne, cranberry, and lime, and Jason ordered the Aviation, with aviation gin, luxardo maraschino liqueur, violet liqueur, and lemon.  That drink was very out of character for Jason, but I think he just wanted some variety.

We took our drinks to-go and walked over to Princess Live where they were hosting Shabbat Services.  

Ian attended a daycare/pre-school at our synagogue for 3 and a half years, and even though he now goes to Pre-K at public school, he still loves going to our synagogue’s monthly Tot Shabbat services.  When we mentioned the idea of going to services, Ian was very excited about it, so we got there a few minutes early to get our seats.  I was surprised to be greeted by a Rabbi as I was expecting this to be more of a passenger-led informal service.  There was a table set up with full-length prayer books, mini challahs, Manischewitz wine, and fake candles to light.  It was an impressive set up and Princess Live was roped off and labeled as a private event so no one would interfere.  Unfortunately, in the 5 minutes between us arriving and the services starting, Ian pulled a Jekyll and Hyde move on us and morphed from happy/quiet to crazy/hangry.  He started yelling that he didn’t want to be there, and he was making quite a scene.  We didn’t want to bother other families, so we decided to leave just as the service started.  

We went back to the cabin to calm him down in private.  My mom was out on her balcony and heard the commotion.  She knocked on our balcony door, surprising all of us (even though we knew the balconies were connected), and she offered to take Ian to dinner at the buffet since she was already taking my niece and nephew.  Ian was okay with that plan, and Jason and I were happy to let her distract him and get his behavior under control.

With our new-found freedom, Jason and I decided to order some drinks to the cabin and enjoy some peaceful time on the balcony watching the sailway from Martinique.

That enormous church midway up the hill was called Église Catholique Sainte-Thérèse.  According to Google Maps, it was only a 13 minute walk from where our ship was docked, so it might have been interesting to hike up there and check it out.

There was some kind of factory directly across from the cruise port.

We saw them loading some cars onto this boat.  I don’t think it was one of the ferries to the local beaches, but maybe it went to a neighboring island?

We could see an airplane coming in for landing at the international airport, located just across the bay from the cruise port.

Once we were far enough out into the bay, we could see the cruise ship docked at the other port was from Mein Schiff.

Once we were further out to sea, we could focus our attention on the stunning sunset.  

Looking back towards Martinique, we could see the full moon hovering in the sky.

We heard a knock on our cabin door, so Jason went inside to retrieve the drinks we ordered from room service: a cosmo for me and a manhattan for him.  Cheers to a beautiful evening at sea!

I couldn’t resist the opportunity to pose Jason holding my drink at the perfect angle…

We stayed out on the balcony long enough to watch the sun dip out of sight.  Even though there were plenty of clouds in the sky, there weren’t any along the horizon, so we thought we might be lucky enough to see the elusive green flash.  No such luck, but it’s always fun to look for it.

We decided to skip dinner in the dining room, and instead opted for a low key meal in the Lido buffet.  

This was the menu from the dining room tonight:

We checked the Medallion app to see where my parents and Ian were, and we could see they were all still on the port side of the buffet, sitting in the section of tables towards the aft.  In an effort to avoid running into them, Jason and I took the mid-ship elevators up to Lido deck, then walked along the starboard side of the buffet area.  Unfortunately, the forward section of the buffet was not set up yet, so we did have to go to the aft section near where my parents were sitting, but we were careful to not get close to their table.  We were able to each gather a full plate of food and sneak back to the forward seating area on the starboard side to eat in secrecy.  Since the food stations in that section were still closed, we were the only people eating in that area so we actually had more privacy than we intended, but it was worth it to avoid running into Ian.

Tonight’s theme was Mexican food in the buffet, so I knew Jason would have no trouble finding things he wanted to eat.  I was a little worried for myself since I am not a big fan of Mexican food, but luckily there were plenty of options for me, including chicken pad see ew, veggie lasagna, garlic shrimp, and scallops ceviche.  Yummmm!

When we went back for dessert, I noticed there was a chocolate fountain station with a crew member dipping strawberries and marshmallows per request.  There was a short line when I got there, so I got to watch him dip the skewers for the people ahead of me, and this crew member was seriously having so much fun!  He said this was his favorite thing that he got to do working in the buffet area, and his joy was contagious.

I asked for 2 skewers, each with 2 strawberries, so I could share one with Jason.  As if that wasn’t enough chocolate, I also got myself a brownie.  Jason snatched one of the strawberries before I could take my photo…

Just as we finished our dessert, my mom texted to ask if we were ready to receive Ian.  We admitted that we had been hiding on the other side of the buffet, and said it was okay for them to bring Ian to us.  My parents had 7pm dinner reservations in the suites dining room, so they left to go eat their dinner and Jason and I took Ian up to deck 17 for camp.  

Tonight was one of those nights when we wished there was more of a stagger between camp opening and the show starting.  After we dropped Ian off at camp, we raced across the ship because we had planned to make it an early night, pending an extremely early wake up time for tomorrow’s tour, which meant we needed to see the 7pm show tonight.  Luckily, as we noticed was his routine all week, the cruise director was still talking to introduce tonight’s performer when we got to the theater at 7:05pm.  I hadn’t spoken to my brother all afternoon so I didn’t know what his plans were, but as we entered the theater from the back and started walking down the stairs to find open seats, I saw his family sitting in a row with 2 empty seats!  I slid into the seat next to my brother without saying anything, and when he turned his head, he was very surprised to see me there!  

Tonight’s performer was a singer named Nick Rashad Burroughs.  He has performed in several musicals on Broadway, including playing Ike Turner in the Tina musical, understudying for Billy Porter in the original cast of Kinky Boots, and he also played Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge.  We all really enjoyed his high-energy performance with excellent vocals and a commanding presence on stage.

The show ended around 8pm.  As we exited the theater, I wanted to stop by at the Bellini Bar to pick up a Tropical Bellini.  I noticed a large crowd down in the Piazza and then I remembered tonight was the Silent Disco!

We knew we needed to pick up Ian soon from camp, but we wanted to just stop by the Silent Disco for a few minutes.  We have done this once before on a Celebrity cruise, and we had so much fun that I knew I wanted to do it again.  It’s too bad we didn’t have the time to stay longer, but we did stay long enough to dance to two or three songs.

This was obviously a popular event on the ship as I don’t think I ever saw this many people in the Piazza (well, that’s not true, there were definitely at least this many people in the Piazza while we were waiting for our tender tickets to be called at Princess Cay, but I definitely never saw this many people at an evening activity in the Piazza!)

Even my nephew was having fun!

At 8:20pm, Jason and I decided we really needed to get going, so we returned our headphones and made the trek up to camp to pick up Ian.  We took him back to the cabin and got him into bed as quickly as possible in hopes that he would get a good night’s sleep before tomorrow’s grand finale excursion!

Today’s drinks total: 15

Up next: Antigua